HOUSEHOLD   ADMINISTRATION 


'  HOUSEHOLD 
ADMINISTRATION 

ITS   PLACE   IN   THE   HIGHER 
EDUCATION   OF   WOMEN 


EDITED    BY 

ALICE   RAVENHILL 

AND 

CATHERINE   J.  SCHIFF 


NEW  YORK 
HENRY   HOLT  AND  COMPANY 

1911 


Printed  by  BALLANTYNK,  HANSON  &>  Co. 
At  the  Ballantyne  Press,  Edinburgh 


PREFACE 

The  object  of  this  book  is  threefold,  (i)  It  endeavours 
to  define  the  importance  and  scope  of  household  adminis- 
tration in  the  twentieth  century,  which,  when  analysed 
into  its  component  parts,  is  found  intimately  to  con- 
cern the  right  conduct  and  domestic  care  of  indi- 
vidual human  lives,  from  their  inception  to  their  close. 
(2)  //  seeks  to  demonstrate  the  necessity  of  an  adequate 
preparation  for  all  who  assume  the  responsibility  of 
such  administration;  particularly  for  those  who,  in 
consequence  of  their  parental  responsibilities,  their  wealth, 
their  social  status,  or  their  professional  duties,  exercise 
far-reaching  influence  through  their  standard  of  life 
and  example.  (3)  Finally,  it  gives  prominence  to  the 
fact  that  the  domestic  arts  are  no  collection  of  empirical 
conventions,  to  be  acquired  by  imitation  or  exercised  by 
instinct.  It  is  clearly  demonstrated  that  the  group  of 
sciences  upon  which  they  rest  is  more  comprehensive 
than  most  people  suspect,  and  that  their  contribution  to 
the  solution  of  pressing  domestic  problems  has  so  far 
been  but  partially  realised.  It  is,  therefore,  of  consider- 
able interest  to  observe  the  remarkable  consensus  of 
opinion  on  each  of  these  points  among  the  recognised 


273118 


vi  PREFACE 

experts  in  their  subjects,  to  whom  were  entrusted  the 
preparation  of  the  various  sections  of  this  book.  The 
writers  of  the  papers,  untrammelled  by  editorial  re- 
strictions, each  writing  from  the  fulness  of  her  know- 
ledge, tested  by  ripe  experience,  reached  independently 
conclusions  conspicuous  for  their  unanimity.  It  will  be 
evident  to  the  most  casual  reader  that,  in  the  opinion  of 
these  thoughtful  women,  blind  instinct  must  yield  place 
to  trained  intelligence,  if  home  life  is  to  be  preserved 
and  modern  conditions  of  existence  adequately  adjusted 
to  human  requirements. 

Progressive  changes,  social,  commercial,  industrial, 
and,  last  but  not  least,  educational,  now  require  that  this 
trained  intelligence  be  fostered  by  organised  instruction 
outside  the  home,  adapted  to  the  needs,  present  or  pro- 
spective,  of  girls  in  every  grade  of  society.  Such  in- 
struction, whether  in  the  fundamental  sciences  or  in  the 
applied  arts,  must  be  associated  with  individual  practice 
in  laboratory,  studio,  workroom,  and  kitchen ;  the  details 
to  be  varied  as  circumstances  dictate. 

If,  however,  consistent  applications  of  such  knowledge 
are  to  be  made  in  order  that  desirable  saving  in  time, 
labour,  money,  health,  or  happiness  shall  be  effected, 
graduate  women  of  high  attainments  are  urgently  needed 
for  the  work.  It  is  they  only  who  can  bring  to  bear 
upon  the  problems  of  childhood  and  adolescence,  of  food, 
of  clothing,  of  housing,  of  domestic  economics,  of  occupa- 
tion, rest,  and  recreation,  the  patient  study  and  research 
in  the  interests  of  humanity,  which  men  of  similar 


PREFACE  vii 

standing  have  lavished  upon  the  advancement  of  com- 
merce and  industrial  processes.  It  is  by  their  skilled 
labour  in  the  almost  untrodden  field  of  domestic  science 
that  the  millions  of  homes  will  benefit  which  are  com- 
mitted to  the  charge  of  women  who  possess  neither  time, 
opportunity,  nor  ability  to  carry  out  these  indispensable 
investigations,  but  who  can  yet  effectively  fulfil  their 
responsibilities,  if  they  be  supported  by  systematic  train- 
ing and  organised  common  sense,  based  on  sound 
knowledge. 

It  is  in  the  hope  of  forwarding  these  objects  that  this 
book  has  been  prepared. 

ALICE   RAVENHILL. 
CATHERINE   SCHIFF. 

Nov.  1910. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

INTRODUCTION— A  BRIEF  HISTORICAL 
SKETCH  OF  WOMAN'S  POSITION  IN  THE 
FAMILY ii 

By  CATHERINE  SCHIFF,  Officier  d' Academic 

THE  PLACE  OF  BIOLOGY  IN  THE  EQUIPMENT 

OF  WOMEN 35 

By  WENONA  HOSKYNS-ABRAHALL,  M.A.  (Dub.) 

SCIENCE    IN   THE   HOUSEHOLD  ....       71 

By  MRS.  W.  N.  SHAW,  formerly  Lecturer  of  Newnham 
College,  Cambridge.  Author  of  "  First  Lessons  in  Obser- 
vational Geometry." 

THE  ECONOMIC  RELATIONS  OF  THE  HOUSE- 
HOLD   121 

By  MABEL  ATKINSON,  M.A.  (Glasgow),  Lecturer  in 
Economics,  King's  College  for  Women  (University  of 
London),  formerly  Scott  Scholar  in  the  University 
of  Glasgow  ;  Research  Student  at  the  London  School  of 
Economics ;  and  Fellow  of  Economics,  Bryn  Mawr 
College,  U.S.A.  Author  of  "Local  Government  in  Scot- 
land." 

SOME  RELATIONS  OF  SANITARY  SCIENCE  TO 
FAMILY  LIFE  AND  INDIVIDUAL  EFFICI- 
ENCY   207 

By  ALICE  RAVENHILL,  late  Lecturer  in  Hygiene, 
King's  College  for  Women  (University  of  London),  &c. 
Author  of  "Practical  Hygiene,"  "Some  Characteristics 
and  Requirements  of  Childhood,"  "  Elements  of  Sanitary 
Law,"  "Household  Foes." 


x  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

MODERN      WOMAN      AND      THE     DOMESTIC 
ARTS— 

I.  NEEDLEWORK  AND  DRESSMAKING         .       .    295 

By  Mrs.  R.  W.  EDDISON,  Gen.  Hon.  Sec.  Yorkshire 
Ladies'  Council  of  Education,  Added  Member  of  Educa- 
tion Committee  of  County  Council  of  West  Riding  of 
Yorkshire,  &c. 

II.  HOUSECRAFT 308 

By  MAUD  R.  TAYLOR,  Examiner  in  Domestic  Science. 


A   BRIEF   HISTORICAL  SKETCH   OF 

WOMAN'S  POSITION   IN 

THE  FAMILY 

BY    CATHERINE    SCHIFF 


A  BRIEF  HISTORICAL  SKETCH  OF 
WOMAN'S  POSITION  IN  THE 
FAMILY 

THE  home  must  always  claim  the  first  place  in 
the  large  majority  of  women's  lives.  It  has  done 
so  in  the  past,  it  does  so  in  the  present,  it  will 
continue  to  do  so  in  the  future.  But  woman's 
activities  are  no  longer  to  be  merely  confined  to 
her  own  fireside,  though  that  must  always  hold  a 
prominent  place.  The  real  problem  of  the  day  is 
the  right  conduct  of  the  home  on  scientific  lines. 

In  some  ways  the  management  of  the  home  has 
never  been  more  difficult.  The  servant  problem 
has  never  been  more  acute  than  to-day ;  the  cost 
of  living  and  the  standard  of  comfort  is  going  up 
by  leaps  and  bounds,  and  the  old  recipe  of  "  Feed 
the  brute,"  as  far  as  the  husband  is  concerned,  is 
no  less  inefficient.  It  is  essential  to-day  to  know 
something  about  food  values,  the  arrangement  of 
meals,  which  avoid  monotony,  and  provide  that 
requisite  variety  in  nourishment,  on  which  the  good 
health  and  ultimately  the  good  temper  of  the 
household  depend. 

Again  we  are  realising  the  great  complexities 
of  all  questions  dealing  with  child-rearing  and 

13 


i4. ;  HOUSEHOLD  ADMINISTRATION 

..eduction.  We  have  travelled  far  from  the  self- 
'r.'-rOorripIageocy-.of  the  woman  of  thirty  years  ago, 
who  based  her  claims  to  a  thorough  knowledge 
of  the  up-bringing  of  children  on  the  fact  that  she 
had  buried  ten.  This  need  for  wider  knowledge 
in  all  branches  of  housekeeping  is  equally  im- 
portant to  the  unmarried  woman,  who  is  more 
and  more  being  called  upon  to  act  as  a  foster- 
mother,  whether  as  a  teacher  or  in  some  other 
capacity,  to  the  nation's  children. 

The  care  of  the  children  is  considered  by  all 
shades  of  opinion  to  be  the  clou  of  a  woman's 
life,  and  every  day  more  and  more  responsibility 
is  cast  upon  her  in  this  respect.  How  can  she, 
then,  fulfil  these  duties  as  they  should  be  fulfilled 
if  she  is  utterly  ignorant  of  the  laws  of  health 
and  of  child-life,  and  how  both  are  affected  by 
environment  and  all  the  other  grave  and  funda- 
mental truths  which  lie  at  the  root  of  the  success- 
ful up-bringing  and  development  of  the  child  ?  It 
is  now  a  hackneyed  saying  "that  the  child  of  to- 
day is  the  man  or  woman  of  to-morrow,"  but  a 
whole  world  of  truth  lies  enshrined  in  those  words  ; 
the  children  are  the  assets  of  the  nation,  and  if 
their  up-bringing  is  not  of  the  best  they  can 
never  attain  to  that  full  heritage  of  development 
which  is  the  right  of  every  soul  born  into  the 
world. 

Scientific  training  in  Household  Administra- 
tion can  alone  save  the  sorely  taxed  housewife 
of  to-day  from  becoming  more  than  a  slave  to  her 
domestic  responsibilities.  It  is  only  by  being  a 


SKETCH    OF    WOMAN'S    POSITION       15 

mistress  of  her  craft,  "  whether  China  fall  or  no/' 
that  she  can  make  sufficient  time  to  devote  herself 
to  necessary  self-culture  and  recreation  as  well  as 
to  those  ever-growing  outside  duties  which  the 
twentieth  century  is  imposing  upon  her  in  the 
shape  of  public  and  social  work.  If  there  is  one 
thing  which  is  becoming  increasingly  obvious,  it  is 
that  the  help  and  advice  of  scientifically  trained 
women  are  absolutely  necessary  in  the  management 
of  hospitals,  the  administration  of  the  Poor  Law, 
and  the  general  solution  of  social  problems. 

At  no  other  epoch  in  the  history  of  mankind 
has  woman  stood  on  the  same  high  plane  as  she 
does  to-day,  and  at  no  other  period  has  so  much 
been  demanded  of  her,  intellectually,  morally,  and 
physically.  It  is  only  within  recent  years  that 
Science  has  attempted  to  come  to  the  aid  of 
woman  in  helping  her  firstly  to  obtain,  and  then 
to  maintain,  the  position  for  which  she  was  origi- 
nally designed,  as  the  complement  of  man  and 
as  the  chief  element  of  preservation  in  human 
society. 

If  the  history  of  mankind  is  traced  back  to 
primordial  times,  we  find  that  it  was  the  female 
who  possessed  power  over  the  emotional  nature  of 
man,  and  it  is  becoming  increasingly  evident  that 
the  family  owes  its  origin  as  a  social  factor  to  the 
Mother,  not  to  the  Father.  Lippert  is  convinced 
"that  the  idea  of  an  exclusively  maternal  kinship 
at  one  time  extended  over  the  whole  earth,"  and 
M'Lennan  says,  "  We  shall  endeavour  to  show  that 
the  most  ancient  system  in  which  the  idea  of 


16       HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

blood-relationship  was  embodied  was  a  system  of 
kinship  through  the  females  only." 

Occupation  seems  to  have  been  the  main  factor 
in  determining  that  the  mother  rather  than  the 
father  should  be  the  founder  of  the  family.  Agri- 
culture originally  appears  to  have  been  entirely 
the  woman's  industry,  while  the  men  were  engaged 
in  hunting  or  looking  after  the  cattle,  and  wherever 
agriculture  was  the  predominant  feature  of  life  we 
find  that  relationship  is  traced  through  the  mother  ; 
while  on  the  other  hand  those  tribes  who  were 
chiefly  pastoral  had  a  paternal  system  of  relation- 
ship— that  is  to  say,  that  descent  was  counted 
through  the  males. 

Drummond,  in  his  book  on  the  "  Ascent  of  Man," 
places  the  Evolution  of  Motherhood  long  before 
that  of  Fatherhood.  "An  early  result,  partly  of 
her  sex,  partly  of  her  passive  strain,  is  the  founding 
through  the  instrumentality  of  the  first  savage 
Mother  of  a  new  and  beautiful  social  state — Domes- 
ticity— while  Man,  restless,  eager,  and  hungry,  is  a 
wanderer  on  the  Earth,  Woman  makes  a  Home  !  " 
And  according  to  the  same  authority  we  find  "  that 
to  Man  has  been  assigned  the  fulfilment  of  the 
first  great  function  —  the  Struggle  for  Life  — 
Woman,  whose  higher  contribution  has  not  yet 
been  named,  is  the  chosen  instrument  for  carrying 
on  the  Life  of  Others."  Nature  took  many  aeons 
to  make  a  mother,  whose  gift  to  the  world  was 
Love  and  Sympathy  ;  the  evolution  of  the  Father 
came  still  later.  "  It  was  when  man's  mind  first 
became  capable  of  making  its  own  provision  against 


SKETCH    OF    WOMAN'S    POSITION       17 

the  weather  and  the  crops  that  the  possibility  of 
Fatherhood,  Motherhood  and  the  Family  were 
realised.  "The  Mother-age,  with  its  mother-right 
customs,  was  a  civilisation,  as  I  have  indicated, 
largely  built  up  by  woman's  activity  and  developed 
by  her  skill  ;  it  was  an  age  within  the  small  social 
unit  of  which  there  was  more  community  of 
interest,  far  more  fellowship  in  labour  and  partner- 
ship in  property  and  sex,  than  we  find  in  the 
larger  social  unit  of  to-day."  1 

In  connection  with  this  theory  of  the  "  Mother- 
age  "  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  Etruscans 
traced  their  descent  through  the  female  line,  and 
it  was  from  the  Etruscans  that  the  Romans  derived 
nearly  all  their  institutions ;  thus  many  of  the 
"  initiative  forces  of  civilisation  "  have  come  down 
to  us  from  women. 

It  is  believed  that  the  patriarchal  system — where 
the  man  was  the  head  of  the  family,  as  amongst 
the  Jews — which  succeeded  the  Mother-age,  grew 
out  of  the  custom  of  capturing  women  belonging 
to  other  tribes,  this  being  succeeded  later  on  by 
purchase,  and  "  as  soon  as  the  woman  ceased  to 
be  protected  by  the  force  of  ideas,  as  soon,  that  is 
to  say,  as  she  lost  her  position  as  head  of  the 
family,  her  downward  path  was  certain."  But 
even  among  primitive  people  we  find  that  it  was 
an  almost  universal  custom  that  a  woman  should 
be  provided  with  an  independent  property,  "  Mit- 
gift,"  though  as  time  went  on  and  the  patriarchal 
system  became  more  firmly  established,  it  appears 

1  Karl  Pearson,  "  The  Chances  of  Death,"  p.  3. 

B 


1 8       HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

that  this  Mitgift  became  the  husband's  property, 
and  that  every  bride  was  expected  to  bring  a 
dowry  to  her  husband,  whose  property  she  became, 
thus  losing  all  independence. 

However,  in  Greece  the  position  of  woman, 
during  the  Heroic  times  was  to  a  certain  extent 
an  independent  one,  as  is  clear  from  the  poems 
of  Homer  and  the  treatment  of  Homeric  and 
Heroic  themes  by  the  Athenian  dramatists.  But 
one  has  only  to  compare  the  il  Nausicaa "  of 
Homer  or  the  fi  Electra  "  of  the  Tragedians  with 
the  women  of  the  time  of  Pericles,  to  see  how 
much  the  status  of  the  female  sex  had  deterio- 
rated. The  Athenian  wife  of  that  time  was  treated 
as  a  mere  "  Hausfrau,"  expected  to  spend  her 
whole  time  at  home  in  the  managing  of  the  house- 
hold, while  the  husband  satisfied  his  intellectual 
tastes  by  intercourse  with  the  "  Stranger-women  " 
attracted  to  Athens  from  other  towns.  "  Thus 
arose  a  most  unnatural  division  of  functions 
among  the  women  of  those  days.  The  citizen- 
women  had  to  be  mothers  and  housewives — 
nothing  more  ;  the  stranger-women  had  to  dis- 
charge the  duties  of  the  companions,  but  remain 
outside  the  pale  of  the  privileged  and  marriage- 
able class." *  To  this  artificial  condition  of 
domestic  and  social  life  may  be  partly  attributed 
the  downfall  of  Athens,  for  it  is  impossible  to 
divide  the  functions  of  woman  without  serious 
risk  to  State  and  race. 

1  Donaldson,  "  Woman,"  p.  58.     Longmans  &  Co. 


SKETCH    OF    WOMAN'S    POSITION       19 

In  ancient  Rome  the  patriarchal  system  was 
the  prevailing  custom.  Under  the  Roman  law 
the  husband  was  the  only  member  of  the  family 
possessing  legal  rights.  "  The  family  (familia)  in 
its  original  and  proper  meaning  is  the  aggregate 
of  members  of  a  household  under  a  common 
head  ;  this  head  was  the  paterfamilias,  the  only 
member  of  the  household  who  possesses  legal 
rights."  *  It  is  true  that  there  were  many  honoured 
women  under  the  Roman  Republic,  such  as 
Cornelia  and  Portia,  the  daughter  of  Cato,  but 
the  lot  of  the  majority  was  not  an  enviable  one. 
Gradually,  however,  the  tutelage  of  women  be- 
came less  severe,  and  Justinian  in  revising  the 
whole  Roman  code  placed  married  and  family 
life  on  an  altogether  new  basis,  "  the  husband 
lost  his  absolute  control  over  his  wife's  dower, 
and  in  case  of  separation  he  had  to  restore  it 
entire." 

Women  had  been  for  so  long  under  such  strict 
tutelage  that  they  were  unfit  to  benefit  by  these 
new  laws.  Doubtless  it  will  be  remembered  that 
the  corruption  of  the  women  of  the  period  is 
practically  unparalleled  in  history,  but  it  must 
be  also  borne  in  mind  that  the  whole  system  of 
Imperial  government  was  so  vicious  that  it  was 
almost  impossible  for  women  to  escape  from  the 
widespread  influence  of  vice  and  corruption. 

Christianity  as  a  force  began  to  make  itself  felt 
while  woman  was  yet  in  this  low  moral  state,  and 

1  Greenridge,  "  Roman  Public  Life,"  p.  18.      Macmillan  &  Co. 


20        HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

it  is  not  therefore  surprising  that  to  the  leaders  of 
Christianity  the  freedom  which  women  then  en- 
joyed and  the  easy  method  of  divorce  obtainable 
were  in  a  large  measure  responsible  for  the  vitiated 
state  of  Roman  life.  In  their  eyes  the  only  means 
of  producing  a  more  salutary  state  of  affairs  was 
to  put  a  check  on  what  they  considered  a  menace 
to  a  Christian  society. 

It  is  of  interest  to  notice  how  the  attitude  of 
the  Early  Fathers  towards  women  differs  from 
that  of  Our  Lord  as  recorded  in  the  Gospels. 
There  indeed  are  women  highly  honoured,  and  it 
is  to  a  woman  that  Christ  often  gives  a  message 
of  the  highest  import.  It  was  to  Mary  Magdalen 
that  the  Risen  Lord  first  appeared  and  bade  her 
tell  the  others,  and  again  it  was  the  woman  of 
Samaria  who  became  the  instrument  of  salvation 
to  her  people.  But  to  the  Early  Fathers  the 
ascetic  ideal  was  the  predominant  one,  and  in 
consequence  thereof  women  were  treated  as  the 
chief  source  of  temptation  to  man.  "  Woman 
was  represented  as  the  door  of  Hell,  as  the 
mother  of  all  human  ills.  She  should  be 
ashamed  at  the  very  thought  that  she  is  a  woman. 
She  should  live  in  continual  penance  on  account 
of  the  curses  she  has  brought  upon  the  world. 
She  should  be  ashamed  of  her  dress,  for  it  is  the 
memorial  of  her  fall.  She  should  be  especially 
ashamed  of  her  beauty,  for  it  is  the  most  potent 
instrument  of  the  demon."  1  In  fact  a  decree  of 

1  Lecky,  "  History  of  European  Morals,"  vol.  ii.  p.  358. 


SKETCH    OF    WOMAN'S    POSITION       21 

the  Council  of  Auxerre  (A.D.  578)  forbade  women 
to  receive  the  Eucharist  in  their  naked  hands 
owing  to  their  impurity. 

Unfortunately  "  the  bigotry  of  the  Early  Chris- 
tian teachers  gave  the  first  check  to  the  tendency 
to  freer  institutions,  the  next  was  given  by  the 
fall  of  the  Empire." 

With  the  influx  of  the  Teutonic  tribes  we  find 
a  new  code  of  ideas  and  morals,  but  eventually  a 
compromise  was  effected  between  the  Germanic 
and  Roman  laws.  Thus  from  very  early  times 
we  find  that  it  was  a  German  custom  to  provide 
every  bride  with  a  dower,  and  this  is  remarked 
upon  by  Tacitus.  Afterwards  the  Church  adopted 
this  custom,  which  was  strangely  enough  both 
Roman  and  Teutonic  in  origin. 

From  the  time  when  the  Empire  went  down 
in  a  cataclysm  which  shook  the  foundations  of  the 
world,  until  the  beginning  of  the  Middle  Ages,  we 
hear  but  little  of  woman.  It  was  the  Sturm  and 
Drang  period  in  the  world's  history,  in  which 
woman  had  no  real  position.  The  women  of  the 
upper  classes  were  of  necessity  confined  either 
to  the  castle  or  the  convent,  and  woman's 
sphere  was  therefore  a  small  one  ; '  man  Ndemanded 
nothing  more  than  that  they  should  minister  to  his 
physical  wants  in  the  short  periods  of  peace  he 
then  enjoyed.  Hallam  says,  (t  I  am  not  sure  that 
we  could  trace  very  minutely  the  condition  of 
women  for  the  period  between  the  subversion  of 
the  Roman  Empire  and  the  First  Crusade  .  .  . 
there  seems  however  to  have  been  more  roughness 


22        HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

in  that  social  intercourse  between  the  sexes  than 
we  find  at  a  later  period." 1 

With  the  end  of  this  stormy  period  comes  the 
dawn  of  the  Age  of  Chivalry,  and  from  that 
time  forward  until  the  Reformation,  woman  en- 
joyed a  portion  at  least  of  her  rightful  position. 
It  is  said  that  "  Chivalry  not  only  bestowed  upon 
the  woman  perfect  freedom  in  the  disposal  of 
hand  and  heart,  but  required  of  the  knight  who 
should  win  her,  devoted  and  lengthened  service  "  ; 
this  may  be,  however,  a  rather  idealised  view  of 
the  situation ;  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  the 
Court  and  the  Cloister  became  the  two  centres  of 
women's  lives,  and  an  intimate  connection  was 
maintained  between  the  two.  Nearly  all  women 
of  gentle  birth  were  educated  in  nunnery  schools, 
and  by  the  eighth  century  we  find  that  these 
schools  had  attained  a  high  standard  of  learning, 
which  increased  and  developed  in  the  succeeding 
centuries.  The  convent  afforded  a  shelter  to  the 
woman  who  did  not  marry  and  to  whom  the 
marriage  state  did  not  appeal  ;  there  she  was 
able  to  a  certain  extent  to  follow  the  career  she 
desired,  at  the  same  time  her  personal  safety  was 
assured.  "  The  scholar,  the  artist,  the  recluse, 
the  farmer,  each  found  a  career  open  to  him  ; 
while  men  and  women  were  prompted  to  under- 
take duties  within  and  without  the  religious  settle- 
ment, which  make  their  activity  comparable  to 
that  of  the  relieving  officer,  the  poor  law  guardian, 

1  Hallatn,  "  History  of  the  Middle  Ages." 


SKETCH    OF    WOMAN'S    POSITION       23 

and  the  district  nurse  of  a  later  age.".1  It  is 
perhaps  of  interest  to  us  to  note  that  the  first 
hospital  for  lepers  in  England  was  founded  by  a 
woman,  "  good  Queen  Maud,"  in  1101  at  S. 
Giles'  on  the  East. 

The  rule  of  an  abbey  or  a  priory  called  for  no 
mean  business  capacity  on  the  part  of  their  heads, 
and  as  a  rule  the  abbess  and  prioress  were  women 
of  great  business  and  administrative  ability.  Before 
the  Norman  Conquest  nearly  all  the  nunneries 
founded  in  England  were  abbacies,  subsequently 
priories  were  the  most  usual  foundations,  as 
according  to  feudal  law  women  were  unable. to 
hold  property. 

The  latter,  half  of  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth 
centuries  arS^renowned  throughout  history  for 
their  women,  who,  occupying  foremost  positions 
in  the  government,  were  clever,  cultured,  and 
liberal-minded.  One  has  but  to  mention  the 
names  of  Margaret,  Countess  of  Richmond,  the 
"  Lady  Margaret "  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge  ;  of 
Leonore  d'Este,  the  mother  of  equally  famous 
daughters,  Isabella  and  Beatrice  d'Este  ;  Mar- 
guerite de  Valois,  sister  of  Francis  I.,  and  Isabella 
of  Castile,  to  conjure  up  before  one's  eyes  the  whole 
procession  of  the  proud  and  capable  women  of 
these  days. 

"One  and  all  have  been  fruitful  as  successive 
stages  of  growth,  yet  they  can  never  recur,  and 
only  the  fanatic  or  visionary  could  wish  that  they 

1  Eckstenstein,  "Woman  under  Monasticism,"  p.  106. 


24        HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

should  recur,  for  each  is  narrow  and  insufficient 
from  the  standpoint  of  a  later  age." 

In  England  "the  women  who  were  the  mothers 
of  the  men  who  created  the  great  Elizabethan 
epoch  were  almost  without  exception  brought  up  in 
nunnery  schools  "  1  and,  alas,  the  destruction  of  the 
nunneries  and  the  rise  of  the  Puritan  spirit  sounded 
the  death-knell  of  women's  education.  After  the 
Reformation  the  position  of  woman  was  peculiarly 
degrading ;  in  the  eyes  of  the  law  she  possessed 
practically  no  status,  and  "  the  old  chivalrous 
feeling  for  woman  seems  to  have  faded  out  with 
the  romance  of  the  Middle  Ages — she  now  figured 
as  the  legal  property  of  man,  '  the  safeguard 
against  sin/  the  bearer  of  children  ad  infinitiun." 

So  woman  was  left  once  more  to  sink  back  into 
a  slough  of  despond,  until  with  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century  there  arose  the  humanitarian 
movement  and  the  gradual  awakening  of  woman 
to  the  sense  of  her  responsibility,  with  the  inevit- 
able corollary  of  her  rightful  position  as  the  social 
equal  of  man. 

If  these  ideals  are  to  be  realised,  woman  must 
recognise  her  responsibilities  and  act  accordingly. 
She  has  proved  herself  a  more  than  apt  student 
in  all  the  liberal  studies,  she  has  practically  forced 
the  door  of  nearly  all  the  professions,  now  she 
must  realise  that  she  must  apply  her  higher  learning 
to  what  is  probably  the  most  difficult  profession 
of  all,  the  management  of  the  home,  or  in  other 

1  "The    Mediaeval    Education    of   Women   in    England,"  Journal 
of  Education,  June  1909. 


SKETCH    OF    WOMAN'S    POSITION       25 

words  she  must  see  that  the  knowledge  she  has 
acquired  be  adapted  and  turned  to  practical  aims. 

Up  to  the  present  time  the  conduct  of  the 
home  has  been  regulated  purely  by  rule  of  thumb 
methods ;  if  however  in  the  future  it  can  only  be 
administered  with  the  same  method  and  scientific 
exactitude  as  prevail  in  other  great  business  enter- 
prises, the  drudgery  of  housekeeping  will  diminish 
and  woman  will  cease  to  be  a  slave  to  household 
duties.  She  will  have  more  time  to  devote  to  the 
cultivation  of  her  own  mind,  and  thus,  while  be- 
coming a  more  real  companion  to  man,  she  will 
be  free  to  take  a  more  enlightened  interest  in  the 
education  and  development  of  her  children. 

"  Incidentally  this  may  go  to  prove  that  a  sound 
knowledge  of  the  household  sciences  and  arts  may 
serve,  not  to  tie  a  woman  more  to  the  storeroom 
and  kitchen,  but  to  enable  her  to  get  better  results 
with  the  expenditure  of  less  time  and  energy,  by 
enabling  her  to  apply  to  everything  simple  and 
complex  within  the  household  the  master-mind, 
instead  of  the  mind  of  the  uncertain  amateur." 

Her  responsibilities  are  great  not  only  as  an 
individual  but  as  a  member  of  the  community  to 
which  she  belongs  ;  and  if  she  is  to  fulfil  these 
responsibilities  in  respect  to  the  home,  she  cannot 
do  so  without  a  thorough  scientific  preparation. 

The  home  is  the  "cradle  of  life,"  it  was  the 
birthplace  of  those  industries  which  to-day  form 
the  great  centres  and  constitute  the  means  of  live- 
lihood for  millions.  In  some  of  these  there  is 
reason  to  believe  that  woman  took  her  share  as 


26        HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

originator.  With  the  process  of  time,  these  primi- 
tive practices  have  grown  into  the  great  industries 
and  arts  of  to-day,  yet  it  is  still  to  the  woman  that 
the  call  comes  to  cultivate  and  use  her  taste  in 
these  matters,  so  that  when  it  falls  to  her  to  be 
responsible  for  the  decoration  and  furnishing  of  a 
house,  she  may  be  able  to  choose  in  all  depart- 
ments of  life  what  is  the  best,  to  the  everlasting 
benefit  of  herself  and  her  family,  both  physically 
and  morally. 

If  man  be  the  producer  and  distributer  of  wealth, 
woman  is  certainly  the  director  of  consumption. 
On  her  rests  the  responsibility  of  expending 
wisely  and  well  the  money  entrusted  to  her  for 
the  nutrition  and  clothing  of  her  family,  and  how 
can  this  be  adequately  fulfilled  if  she  have  no  real 
knowledge  of  the  subject  beyond  what  she  is  able 
to  pick  up  as  she  goes  along,  a  method  detri- 
mental to  all  concerned  ?  Little  would  be  thought 
of  any  business  house  which  entrusted  its  most 
delicate  operations  to  inexperienced  buyers,  or  of 
any  municipality  which  allowed  its  affairs  to  be 
conducted  by  an  amateur.  Far  less  would  be 
heard  of  misery,  poverty,  and  ill-health  if  the  art  of 
buying  and  preparing  food,  for  instance,  were  pro- 
perly understood  by  those  whom  it  most  concerns. 

Again,  the  chief  racial  responsibility  falls  on 
woman ;  it  is  just  in  the  most  precious  years  of 
childhood  that  her  influence  is  so  potent,  and 
it  is  the  mother,  who  besides  helping  to  sow  all 
the  ethical  and  spiritual  seeds,  should  safeguard 
the  perfect  physical  condition  of  her  children,  in 


SKETCH    OF    WOMAN'S    POSITION       27 

order  that  an  unimpaired  vitality  and  constitution 
be  handed  on  from  generation  to  generation.  No 
proverb  is  truer  than  "  Mens  sana  in  corpore 
sano "  ;  the  two  go  hand  in  hand  together,  and 
their  accomplishment  is  the  proud  privilege  of  the 
woman. 

From  the  family  flows  the  life  of  the  nation, 
and  the  power  to  guide  it  aright  lies  largely  in 
the  hands  of  women,  whether  they  be  married 
or  single.  With  the  married  woman  her  own 
family  comes  first  of  all,  and  then  through  it  her 
duty  as  a  citizen  ;  the  unmarried  woman's  duties 
as  a  citizen  are  manifold,  and  each  year  they 
increase  and  expand.  Nearly  all  the  activities  of 
public  life  are  open  to  her ;  for  instance  she  may 
sit  on  County  Councils,  Municipal  Councils,  Dis- 
trict Councils,  urban  and  rural  Parish  Councils,1 

1  It  is  interesting,  however,  to  note  the  following  Electoral  Dis- 
abilities for  women  in  England  and  Wales,  which,  however,  do  not 
exist  in  Scotland  or  Ireland  : — 

No  married  woman  can  vote  in  any  Town  Council  election  or  in 
any  County  Council  election  outside  London. 

No  woman  owner  has  any  right,  in  virtue  of  her  ownership,  to  vote 
in  any  local  election.  Until  1894  women  owners,  as  such,  were 
entitled  to  vote  in  Poor  Law  Guardian  elections,  but  the  Local  Govern- 
ment Act  of  that  year  disfranchised  them,  while  enlarging  the  voting 
rights  of  men  owners. 

No  woman  lodger  can  vote  in  any  local  election,  although  men 
lodgers  can  vote  in  District  and  Parish  Council  and  Guardian  elections, 
and  in  the  election  of  the  London  County  and  London  Borough 
Councils. 

For  women  there  is  no  service  franchise — such  as  entitles  men  to 
vote  in  District  and  Parish  Council  and  Guardian  elections,  and  in  the 
election  of  London  Borough  Councils — i.e.  no  occupation  of  a  dwel- 
ling as  an  official  or  servant  (for  example,  as  matron  or  caretaker) 
entitles  a  woman  to  be  placed  on  the  Register. 

For  neither  men  nor  women  is  there  any  ownership  franchise,  lodger 
franchise,  or  service  franchise  for  Town  Council  elections  or  for  County 
Council  elections  outside  London. 


28        HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

Boards  of  Guardians,  &c. ;  in  fact  in  the  growing 
field  of  social  work,  her  services  are  being  more 
and  more  recognised  as  indispensable,  and  it  is 
impossible  in  a  few  words  to  enumerate  all  the 
possibilities  of  service  which  lie  before  her,  both 
professional  and  philanthropic. 

Consequently  if  a  healthy  nation  is  desired,  the 
women  of  a  country  must  be  educated  both 
academically  and  scientifically.  "  If  women  are 
to  be  fit  wives  and  mothers  they  must  have  all, 
perhaps  more,  of  the  opportunities  for  personal 
development  that  men  have.  All  the  activities 
hitherto  reserved  to  men  must  be  open  to  them, 
and  many  of  these  activities,  certain  functions  of 
citizenship,  for  example,  must  be  expected  of  them. 
Moreover,  whatever  the  lines  may  be  along  which 
the  fitness  of  woman  to  labour  will  be  experiment- 
ally determined,  the  underlying  position  must  be 
established  that,  for  the  sake  of  the  individual  and 
race  character,  she  must  be  a  producer  as  well  as 
a  consumer  of  social  values."1 

Now  how  is  this  most  desirable  end  to  be 
attained  ?  The  succeeding  papers  will  deal  with 
the  subject  in  exfenso ;  here  can  only  be 
briefly  indicated  the  scope  and  purpose  of  the 
majority. 

An  eminent  authority  tells  us  that  tl  the  objects 
of  nature  may  be  designated  as  the  objective 
point  of  view.  It  is  the  standpoint  of  biology 
and  affords  the  natural  conditions  for  the  success- 

1  Parsons,  "The  Family,"  p.  346. 


SKETCH    OF    WOMAN'S    POSITION       29 

ful  investigation  of  the  laws  of  life,  not  only  of 
the  lower  organisms  but  of  the  human  race  as 
well."  1  This  immediately  demonstrates  the  vital 
necessity  that  women  should  know  something  of 
these  fundamental  laws  of  life,  which  biology 
alone  can  teach,  in  order  that  she  may  apply 
these  to  her  ordinary  daily  life  and  recognise  them 
as  operating  in  all  her  surroundings. 

The  transition  from  this  stage  to  the  next  is  an 
easy  one.  Woman  having  learnt  the  laws  of  life, 
will  immediately  view  her  economic  responsibilities 
with  a  clearer  eye  and  fuller  understanding.  It 
is  true  that  throughout  the  ages  woman  has 
striven  to  acquit  herself  as  best  she  could,  but 
until  the  present  day  it  has  mostly  been  a  grop- 
ing in  the  dark,  without  the  aid  of  any  exterior 
agency.  Now  light  is  beginning  to  be  thrown  on 
many  points  hitherto  obscure. 

Household  economics  has  been  well  said  "  to 
rest  on  two  chief  cornerstones,  the  economy  of 
wealth  and  the  economy  of  health,  and  encloses 
the  groundwork  of  human  happiness  and  human 
aspirations  .  .  .  even  all  departments  of  science 
must  contribute  to  its  development." 

But  a  mere  knowledge  of  biology  and  econo- 
mics is  useless  without  bodily  efficiency,  and  true 
bodily  efficiency  is  only  possible  where  the  en- 
vironment is  favourable  to  growth  and  life.  It 
cannot  be  expected  that  full  physical  development 
can  ever  take  place  in  ill-lighted,  badly  ventilated, 

1  Lester  Ward,  "  Dynamic  Sociology,"  vol.  ii,  p.  120.     D.  Appleton 
and  Co.,  New  York. 


30       HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

defectively  drained  or  otherwise  objectionable 
houses.  And  it  must  never  for  a  moment  be 
forgotten  that  if  the  body  be  neglected,  then,  as 
an  inevitable  consequence,  the  mind  and  spirit 
must  also  become  warped.  It  is  not  that  we 
desire  man  to  develop  his  physical  nature  at  the 
expense  of  his  spiritual,  but  rather  that  we  would 
see  him  placed  in  such  a  condition  that  he  is 
able  to  apply  those  great  faculties,  which  dis- 
tinguish him  from  the  brute  creation,  to  their 
highest  and  best  use. 

The  ancients  recognised  in  very  early  times  the 
need  of  sanitary  precautions  to  protect  themselves 
from  the  onslaught  of  disease  and  the  consequent 
decimation  of  their  race. 

We  find  Mena,  King  of  Egypt  (5000  B.C.),  men- 
tioning in  his  Ordinances  that  offences  in  diet 
were  one  of  the  things  through  which  "  the  genius 
of  death  becomes  eager  to  destroy  men." 

The  Levitical  Laws  contain  many  enactments  of 
a  sanitary  character,  they  are  one  of  the  oldest 
known  sanitary  codes,  and  have  many  wise  and 
necessary  provisions  for  the  health  of  the  people. 

Rules  for  the  conduct  of  rural  life  were  formu- 
lated so  far  back  as  100-500  B.C.  in  Bceotia. 
Tarquinus  Priscus  began  and  Tarquinus  Superbns 
completed  the  great  works  for  the  drainage  of 
Rome  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  .centuries  B.C.,  of 
which  the  Cloaca  Maxima  was  the  most  remark- 
able feature  ;  even  to-day  the  ancient  water-supply 
of  Rome  and  her  system  of  baths  are  still  a 
source  of  admiration  to  the  modern  world.  And 


SKETCH    OF    WOMAN'S    POSITION       31 

to  their  credit  be  it  said  that  the  Romans  carried 
this  knowledge  with  them  to  the  countries  which 
they  conquered  ;  we  find  aqueducts  at  Great 
Chester  and  Lanchester,  an  arterial  sewer  at  Lin- 
coln, and  the  well-known  baths  at  Bath. 

From  the  destruction  of  Rome  until  well-nigh 
ten  centuries  later  was  a  period  in  which  no 
advance  in  sanitation  was  made  ;  on  the  contrary, 
retrogression  was  the  keynote  of  the  time.  War- 
fare, religious  segregation,  and  the  spread  of 
asceticism  were  the  chief  reasons  for  this ;  the 
ideals  of  both  Christian  and  Pagan  were  opposed 
to  personal  and  public  hygiene.  "The  ascetic 
violated  all  laws  of  personal  hygiene,  the  monas- 
tery's ideal  was  inconsistent  with  public  hygiene, 
and  both  glorified  God  by  teaching  submission  to 
pestilence,"  l  which  from  time  to  time  swept  over 
the  country,  devastating  it  from  end  to  end. 

But  with  the  increase  of  trade  it  became 
necessary  to  adopt  certain  measures  for  the 
preservation  of  human  life,  and  in  1348  we 
hear  of  the  first  street-cleaning  and  quarantine 
in  those  two  great  centres  of  commerce,  Venice 
and  Cologne.  It  was  in  the  same  year  that  the 
most  terrible  plague  which  the  world  has  ever 
known  attacked  Britain  and  practically  depopu- 
lated it,  finding  its  chief  prey  in  the  filthy  streets 
of  the  City.  This  led  in  1379  to  an  Order  in 
Common  Council  for  keeping  the  streets  clean. 
But  despite  this,  all  through  mediaeval  times 
personal  health  was  shamefully  neglected  and 

1  Sanitary  Record  and  Journal,  Nov.  24,  1904. 


32        HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

public  health  practically  unknown.  The  conse- 
quences are  easy  to  trace  ;  the  country  was  again 
and  again  swept  by  epidemics  which  were  natu- 
rally followed  by  severe  famines,  and  thus  on 
every  side  progress  was  checked.  The  Fire  of 
London  at  least  cleansed  London  of  its  filth,  and 
from  that  time  forward  matters  began  to  improve. 
All  through  the  eighteenth  century,  smallpox, 
typhus,  scurvy,  and  ague  were  rampant,  and  it 
is  not  till  1834  that  we  find  the  beginning  of 
sanitary  legislation.  In  1837  *ne  Act  for  the 
Registration  of  Births  and  Deaths  was  passed, 
which  at  once  provided  the  indispensable  foun- 
dation for  reliable  statistics  ;  previous  to  that  date 
all  that  there  was  to  depend  upon  were  the 
Baptismal  Registers  and  the  more  or  less  accurate 
Bills  of  Mortality.  This  has  been  followed  by 
a  long  series  of  Public  Health  enactments  con- 
cerned with  practically  every  department  of  life. 
In  fact  during  the  last  fifty  years  the  public 
conscience  has  been  quickened  to  an  extraordi- 
nary degree.  Much  however  has  yet  to  be  done 
which  cannot  be  touched  by  legislation,  and  it 
is  to  the  woman,  who  has  been  trained  in  the 
right  conduct  of  life  both  private  and  public, 
that  the  world  looks  for  the  preservation  of 
healthy  human  life,  much  of  which  is  now  need- 
lessly sacrificed  on  the  altar  of  ignorance.  In 
many  cases  the  woman  is  the  only  person  who 
can  prevent  this,  therefore  she  must  equip  herself 
for  her  high  and  noble  duty  with  all  that  Science 
can  provide  and  Art  can  suggest,  neither  must 


SKETCH    OF    WOMAN'S    POSITION       33 

she  forget  that  her  own  home  must  ever  be  the 
starting-point  of  every  endeavour.  For  the  "  Mrs. 
lellabies "  of  this  world  are  not  those  who  help 
forward  its  progress,  rather  are  they  the  clogs 
on  its  wheels. 

Not  only  charity,   but  all   other   virtues  begin 
at   home.     "So  long   as  the   first   concern    of    a 
nation  is   for  its  homes,  it  matters  little  what 
seeks  second  or  third." 


THE   PLACE   OF   BIOLOGY   IN   THE 
EQUIPMENT   OF   WOMEN 

BY  WENONA  HOSKYNS-ABRAHALL,  M.A. 
(DUBLIN) 


THE   PLACE   OF   BIOLOGY   IN  THE 
EQUIPMENT   OF   WOMEN 

IN  considering  what  is  the  best  mental  equip- 
ment for  women  in  civilised  countries  it  is  as  well 
not  to  contemplate  only  the  great  general  facts 
of  life,  such  as  wifehood,  motherhood,  and  the 
woman's  position  in  the  household.  It  is  neces- 
sary to  take  into  account  also  the  special  charac- 
teristics and  circumstances  of  our  own  times  and 
civilisation  ;  for,  unless  a  woman  is  prepared  to 
meet  these  successfully,  she  cannot  be  deemed 
adequately  equipped,  even  if  from  other  points 
of  view  her  education  be  ideal.  In  the  beautiful 
old-fashioned  education  of  Japanese  women  we 
have  an  instance  of  such  ideal  excellence,  which 
is  yet  proving  unable  to  cope  with  the  require- 
ments of  actual  life  in  modern  Japan. 

The  most  striking,  and  also  the  most  radical  and 
pervasive,  characteristic  of  our  time  is,  of  course, 
the  progress  made  in  scientific  knowledge.  Month 
by  month  enormous  numbers  of  facts  are,  in  every 
department,  added  to  the  knowledge  already  ac- 
quired. To  let  one's  imagination  range,  even  in  a 
cursory  way,  over  the  work  that  is  being  done  in 

37 


38        HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

chemistry  and  physics  merely  as  they  concern 
biology — to  enumerate  the  subdivisions  of  these 
sciences,  or  to  look  down  a  list  of  recent  publi- 
cations relating  to  research  carried  on  in  them, 
is  enough  to  make  one's  brain  reel. 

This  ceaseless  widening  of  the  borders  of  know- 
ledge is,  we  must  gladly  allow,  most  inspiriting  ; 
and  yet,  seen  from  another  side,  it  may  well  give 
rise  to  fears.  For  it  is  fairly  obvious  that  the 
progress  of  human  happiness  goes  by  no  means 
pari  passu  with  this  progress  of  knowledge  ;  and, 
on  looking  more  closely,  we  may  even  observe 
miseries  and  degradations  which  can  be  traced  up 
directly  to  the  practical  application  of  some  of 
those  scientific  discoveries. 

To  what  must  we  ascribe  this  ?  It  would  seem 
to  be  the  outcome  of  two  lines  of  tendency  just 
now  predominant. 

The  first  of  these  is  that  very  strong  bent  to- 
wards mere  accumulation  of  fresh  facts  which 
may  be  noted  in  the  most  able  and  active  workers 
all  over  the  world.  Just  as,  in  other  times,  the 
best  minds  have  flung  themselves  with  enthusiasm 
upon  art  or  literature  or  philosophy  or  statesman- 
ship or  war,  so  now  they  fling  themselves  eagerly 
upon  the  discovery  of  more  and  more  recondite 
truths  in  science — leaving  the  ordinary  government 
of  affairs,  on  the  whole,  to  minds  of  the  second 
order. 

The  next  is  the  reckless  way  in  which  isolated 
scientific  discoveries — more  especially  in  physics 
and  chemistry — are  brought  to  a  practical  applica- 


THE    PLACE    OF    BIOLOGY  39 

tion  and  introduced  into  the  scheme  of  everyday 
human  life.  This  is  done  without  consideration 
of  anything  beyond  ensuring  some  obvious 
superficial  convenience,  and — what  is  a  principal 
determinant — the  opening  up  of  new  financial 
enterprises.  Advantages  of  a  sort  no  doubt  are 
won — but  often  only  at  a  fearfully  dispropor- 
tionate cost.  The  game — if  we  would  but  look 
at  it  unconventionally,  from  the  standpoint  of  true 
biological  science — is  not  worth  the  candle  ;  for 
it  involves  a  sacrifice  of  life  itself  to  what  can 
hardly  be  considered  even  as  the  means  of  life. 

Thus  the  chemicals  used  to  preserve  food  im- 
pair its  nutritive  qualities  ;  while  other  chemicals, 
as  well  as  a  number  of  ingenious  mechanical 
processes,  serve  to  facilitate  adulteration.  We  all 
know  how  difficult  it  is  to  obtain  pure  milk  and 
butter,  or  pure  bread  from  pure  flour,  or  jams 
made  with  sugar  from  fresh  and  good  fruit. 
Bread  may  be  made  from  flour  which  has  passed 
through  no  less  than  seven  processes, — a  sad 
contrast  this  to  the  old  home-made  bread,  the 
product  of  home-ground  meal,  whole  and  sweet 
as  nature  made  it.  What  is  sold  in  enormous 
quantities  to  the  people  as  sugar,  whether  alone 
or  as  part  of  preserves,  turns  out  often  to  be 
glucose.  Butter,  so-called,  is  often  only  skilfully- 
treated  fats,  the  weight  helped  out  by  water. 
These  three  articles  of  diet  alone,  when  adulter- 
ated as  they  thus  often  are,  mean  serious 
deterioration  in  the  food — and  therefore  in  the 
physique — of  the  nation  ;  and  to  them  we  have 


40        HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

yet  to  add  the  effect  of  the  chemicals  used  for 
keeping  fish  and  meat  in  place  of  the  genuine, 
old-fashioned  pickling,  salting,  and  smoking. 

Machinery,  again,  growing  ever  more  and  more 
complicated,  has  destroyed  an  incalculable  wealth 
of  traditional  activity  :  and  therewith,  generation  by 
generation,  it  tends  to  destroy  the  finest  capacities 
of  individual  men  and  women,  whether  producers 
or  consumers  of  the  finished  product.  The  con- 
sumers suffer  through  the  lack  of  opportunity  to 
acquire  and  exercise  manual  dexterity  and  resource- 
fulness— as  well  as  through  a  great  lack  of  experi- 
mental knowledge.  The  producers  suffer  through 
the  monotony  and  narrowness  of  their  labour. 

We  may  take  as  other  instances  of  reckless- 
ness our  common  use  of  unprotected  illuminants 
— electric  light  and  incandescent  gas-mantles — 
which  give  off  ultra-violet  rays  injurious  to  the 
eyes ;  the  use  of  portable  electric  lamps  and 
switch  lampholders,  which  is  by  no  means  free 
from  risk  ;  and  again  the  extreme  recklessness 
of  the  so-called  "  medical  electrician,"  who  will 
actually  venture  to  give  electrical  massage  to  a 
patient  immediately  after  wet  pack.1 

As  a  last  example  we  may  take  the  rage  for  speed, 
and  in  particular  the  use  of  electrically  driven 
motor-cars.  The  exact  effects  upon  the  human 
frame  of  the  rapid  motion,  of  the  vibrations,  of  the 
presence  of  the  electric  current  and  escaping  gas 
have  never  been  adequately  investigated — though 

1  "The  Electrical   Resistance  of  the  Human  Body."     Gee  and 
Brotherton,  Manchester  Lit.  and  Phil.  Soc.,  1910. 


THE    PLACE    OF    BIOLOGY  41 

sundry  ill  consequences  of  motor-driving  have  been 
noted  without  any  diminution  of  the  practice. 

A  very  cursory  reflection  may  show  us  that, 
while  the  progress  of  science  is  the  great  char- 
acteristic fact  of  modern  life  to  which  we  all 
have  to  adjust  ourselves,  we  must  be  prepared 
not  only  to  take  advantage  of  the  good  it  offers, 
but  also  to  discern  and  counteract  the  perils  it 
brings  with  it,  when  applied  to  human  life  in  our 
present  somewhat  random  way. 

The  random  nature  of  our  proceedings  may  be 
illustrated  from  yet  another  side.  There  are  a 
number  of  facts  and  principles,  long  since  agreed 
upon  as  truly  ascertained,  which  have  never,  or 
only  very  partially,  been  brought  to  bear  upon 
custom  and  daily  life.  We  all  know  that  plenty 
of  fresh  air  is  a  first  condition  of  health  and 
vigour  ;  and  are  so  far  convinced  of  this  verity 
that  open-air  treatment  is  generally  accepted  as 
the  proper  mode  of  attacking  and  mastering  con- 
sumption. Yet  we  crowd  together  into  cities : 
our  houses  are  often  very  imperfectly  ventilated, 
and  our  public  buildings — churches,  theatres,  halls, 
schools  and  institutions,  as  well  as  our  railway- 
carriages  and  tram-cars — provide  only  for  the 
very  minimum  of  change  of  air.  Similar  neglect 
of  definitely  ascertained  facts  may  be  seen  in 
dress,  in  food  and  drink,  in  furniture,  in  occu- 
pations. Noise  is  well  known  to  be  injurious  to 
the  brain,  and  destructive  to  thought:  more  than 
that,  it  has  been  discovered  that  it  is  harmful  to 
the  viscera.  We  insist,  more  or  less,  upon  quiet 


42        HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

for  the  sick  :  but  no  trouble  is  taken  about  quiet 
for  those  who  are  well.  Our  thoroughfares  echo 
with  noises  of  all  kinds,  from  the  roar  of  traffic 
to  the  howling  and  whistling  of  errand-boys  ;  and 
the  authorities  would  be  much  surprised  if  they 
were  accounted  specially  negligent  for  not  making 
some  effort  to  suppress  them.  Yet  to  any  biologi- 
cally trained  person  this  noise  must  appear  not 
disagreeable  merely,  but  a  real  handicap  to  the 
health  and  energy  of  the  community.  Wherever 
faithfulness  to  scientific  principle  involves  trouble 
without  prospect  of  money-making,  it  is  likely  to 
be  shirked,  however  great  the  benefits  known  to 
come  from  it. 

This  is  not  entirely  due  to  laziness,  nor  yet  to 
ignorance,  it  is  due  quite  as  much  to  circumstance 
and  to  the  pressure  of  our  present  social  institu- 
tions. It  is  closely  bound  up  with  the  great  social 
question  of  the  ownership  of  land,  and  with  the 
husbandry  and  use  of  the  resources  of  the  land, 
our  rivers  and  our  sea-shore.  Wasting  a  great 
measure  of  what  these  have  to  give  us,  polluting 
them  in  different  ways  by  our  manufactures  and 
by  the  refuse  of  our  cities,  we  are  constraining 
whole  masses  of  our  population  to  look  to  the 
work  and  the  products  of  other  countries  for  the 
first  necessities  of  life.  Whole  masses  of  our 
population  are  removed  from  direct  contact  with 
the  soil,  which  is  the  nursing-mother  not  only 
of  the  body,  but  also  of  the  mind  of  man  ;  the 
people  and  the  land  being  thus  alike  impoverished. 
Inquiring  how  so  dangerous  an  error  can  have 


THE    PLACE    OF    BIOLOGY  43 

arisen,  we  may  find  at  least  part  of  its  cause  to 
lie  in  an  ignorance  of  the  fundamental  principles 
of  biology,  the  science  of  life. 

What,  it  may  now  be  asked,  is  to  be  done  to 
counteract  these  disadvantages  and  dangers  ?  And, 
again,  how  does  all  this  bear  on  the  equipment  of 
women  ? 

Taking  the  latter  question  first :  it  is  indisput- 
able that  an  enormous  proportion  of  our  commerce 
and  manufactures  is  concerned  with  food  and  with 
articles  required  for  the  home.  But  things  for 
the  home  are  made  to  be  dealt  with  and  used 
by  women.  In  so  far  as  science  comes  in  and 
modifies  this  material  it  is  imperative  that  women 
should  be  placed  in  a  position,  not  only  to 
know  what  are  the  essentials  for  life,  but  also 
to  criticise  and  estimate  accurately  that  which 
is  offered  to  them  as  scientific  improvement.  For 
we  need,  in  this  connection  also,  to  remember 
that  science  can  only  be  fought  by  science — 
that  is,  by  knowledge  belonging  to  the  same 
plane. 

We  have  now  in  part  answered  our  former 
question.  What  we  need  is  a  central  or  basal 
science  to  which — for  practical  purposes  and  in 
regard  to  its  practical  application — the  work  done 
in  other  sciences  can  be  brought  to  be  accepted, 
or  rejected,  or  modified.  This  central  science 
can,  in  the  very  nature  of  things,  be  none  other 
than  biology  :  the  science,  that  is,  which  gives  an 
account  of  the  functions  and  inter-relations  and 
structure  of  all  living  things,  and  deduces  there- 


44       HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

from  those  principles  which,  in  a  rather  loose 
way,  we  speak  of  as  the  laws  of  life. 

It  would,  we  think,  be  a  very  happy  turn  of 
affairs  if,  not  all,  but  some  of  that  genius,  which 
is  now  spending  itself  in  the  research  for  fresh 
facts,  could  be  diverted  to  the  work  of  correlating 
with  one  another  facts  already  known,  and  bring- 
ing all  those  that  are  appropriate  to  be  grouped 
as  it  were  in  order  of  service  around  biology. 

But  perhaps  not  less  important  than  this  is  what 
we  may  call  the  practical  synthetic  work  of  women 
in  their  households.  There  are,  indeed,  two  cir- 
cumstances which  would  give  the  ordinary  woman 
of  average  intelligence,  if  she  were  but  adequately 
instructed,  some  advantage,  so  far  as  the  service 
of  mankind  goes,  over  even  the  most  brilliant  man 
of  genius.  The  first  is  the  vantage-ground  of  her 
position  in  the  home — at  the  very  point,  that  is, 
where  so  many  sciences  thrust  themselves  up 
together  to  the  surface  of  actual  life — wnere  in 
some  way  or  other,  however  roughly,  they  have 
to  be  correlated,  compared,  their  different  claims 
adjusted.  The  second  is  the  natural  inclination 
of  the  womanly  mind  towards  synthesis  rather 
than  analysis,  towards  practice  rather  than  theory. 

We  ought  now  to  consider  rather  closely — 
exhaustively  we  cannot — what  is  included  under 
the  term  Biology.  It  sood  for  some  time  chiefly 
to  mean  an  account  of  the  structures  of  animals 
and  plants,  structure  being  pursued  into  ever 
further  minuteness,  down  to  the  cell  and  the  con- 
stituents and  parts  of  the  cell.  With  this  has 


THE    PLACE    OF    BIOLOGY  45 

gone   insistent  inquiry  into  the  process;  of  repro- 
duction   and   growth ;    and    more    lately,   in    bio- 
chemistry   and     bio-physics,    the     conformity    of 
living  substance  to  the  order  recognised  in  non- 
living matter  has  been,  and  is  being,  most  eagerly 
investigated.     And  now  a  school   of  biologists  is 
arising  whose  aim  is  the  vindication  of  the  claims 
of  function  as  against  the  too  exclusive  study  of 
structure.     Function,  of  course,  involves  activity  ; 
and  activity,  in  a  complex,  multicellular  organism, 
involves  the  interplay  of    parts.     This    interplay, 
again,  cannot  be  studied  without  reference  to  the 
environment,   and  to   the   relations   between   the 
organism  in  question  and  others — whether  of  its 
own  or  of  other  species.     In  this  way  it  seems 
likely  that  biology — moving  as  it  were  in  a  spiral 
— will  by-and-by  return,  though  at  a  much  higher 
level,  to   the   standpoint  of  the   older  naturalists, 
whose  interest  in  plants  and  animals  was  focussed 
more  upon  their  activities,  habits  of  life  and  special 
environment  than   upon   their   morphology — and 
even  disdained  not  to  consider  their  possible  uses 
for  man.     Also,  more  thoroughly  and  extensively 
than  before,  the   study  of  man  himself  is    being 
caught  up  into  the  great  web  of  Biology.     It  is  seen 
as  an  integral  part  of.  Biology,  and  pursued  in  the 
biological  spirit.     Whether  we  look  to  psychology 
on  the  one  hand,  or  to  anthropology  and  its  asso- 
ciated sciences  on  the  other,  the  present  is  a  most 
propitious  moment  for  drawing  public  attention  to 
this  vast   science,  as   being  the  true   centre  and 
foundation  of  that   practical   knowledge  which  is 


46        HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

needed  as  a  guide,  and  also  as  a  stimulus,  for 
practical  everyday  life. 

It  will,  of  course,  be  instantly  objected  that  the 
subject  is  indeed  vast — much  too  vast.  But  not 
too  vast,  surely,  if,  by  means  of  a  very  simple 
principle,  we  select  out  what  is  of  immediate 
definite  use,  and  necessary  for  everybody,  from 
what  may  be,  by  the  majority,  safely  left  on  one 
side.  We  shall  then  get,  on  this  side,  the  highly 
specialised  Biology  of  the  laboratory  with  its 
minute  researches  and  nicely  calculated  experi- 
ments, and,  on  that,  what  we  may,  for  our  present 
purpose,  call  Common-sense  Biology. 

Just  one  word  of  explanation  is  perhaps  needed 
at  the  outset.  Common-sense  Biology  does  not 
mean  anything  like  that  slipshod  dealing  with 
miscellaneous  phenomena  of  nature  which  some- 
times goes  by  the  name  of  Nature  Study.  It  is  a 
course  of  work  systematic  and  strictly  scientific, 
conducted  as  truly  as  any  other  in  the  scientific 
spirit.  It  presents,  however,  two  points  of  con- 
trast with  special  or  analytical  Biology,  in  that, 
whereas,  in  analytical  Biology,  a  beginning  may 
be  made  practically  anywhere,  with  any  series 
of  facts  one  may  prefer  to  take  first,  in  Common- 
sense  Biology  there  is  only  one  right  mode  of 
starting,  and  that  of  the  utmost  importance  ; 
while,  secondly,  Common-sense  Biology  combines 
some  of  the  characteristics  of  an  art  with  the 
ordinary  characteristics  of  a  science. 


THE    PLACE    OF    BIOLOGY  47 


COMMON-SENSE   BIOLOGY 

It  is  this  latter  form  of  the  science — this  science, 
which  is  also  an  art — that  we  would  advocate  as 
essential  for  the  equipment  of  women.  With  this 
view  let  us  examine  it  further. 

And  first,  what  is  its  proper  starting-point  ? 
Its  proper  starting-point  is  accurate  instruction 
concerning  the  living  things  with  which  the 
student  is,  or  can  easily  be,  brought  into  imme- 
diate practical  contact.  And,  again,  in  the  study 
of  these  living  things — plants  and  animals  alike — 
attention  is  directed  first  towards  the  organism  in 
its  totality  and  in  its  activities — towards  function 
rather  than  towards  structure ;  and  also  towards 
mode  of  life,  relations  with  environment,  and,  where 
possible,  towards  its  use  or  danger  to  mankind. 
Structure  will,  no  doubt,  early  have  to  be  intro- 
duced, but  only  in  its  larger  details  as  explanatory 
of  function,  for  the  sake  of  a  better  knowledge  of 
the  animal  or  plant  as  a  whole. 

What  are  to  be  the  types  and  examples  of 
organisms  studied  ? 

This  is  an  important  question,  and  the  writer 
would  most  strongly  urge  that  the  principle  of 
selection  should  be  that  of  locality  ;  that  the 
student  should  start  with  those  plants  and  animals 
—both  wild  and  domestic — which  are  to  be  found 
within  a  given  radius  of  the  place  where  she  is 
living  and  working.  The  first  things  to  know 
about  are  habit,  activity,  inter-relation  and  use  to 


48        HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

human  beings.  In  respect  to  these,  the  presence 
of  one  organism  will  react  upon  others,  and  there- 
fore no  plant  or  animal  within  the  area  should 
be  lightly  overlooked. 

THE  IMPORTANCE  OF  BACTERIOLOGY 

We  must  not,  however,  confine  attention  to  the 
higher  multicellular  animals  and  plants.  One  of 
the  most  important  factors  in  the  environment  is 
the  existence  of  bacteria  ;  and  it  is  of  great  im- 
portance that  an  outline  of  bacteriology  should  be 
included  in  our  course  of  Common-sense  Biology. 
This  outline  should  be  kept  close  to  the  com- 
mon necessities  of  everyday  life.  For  the  sake  of 
making  clear  and  real  to  the  mind  the  manner  in 
which  bacteria  multiply  and  the  extreme  rapidity 
of  the  process,  a  certain  amount  of  microscopical 
work  ought  to  be  done,  the  examples  being  few, 
but  carefully  chosen.  This  kind  of  work,  never- 
theless, should  be  kept  subordinate.  The  effects 
wrought  by  bacteria  in  water,  earth  and  air,  in 
stored  food-stuffs,  and  in  the  tissues  of  the  living 
body  are  the  important  subjects  for  study  ;  and 
naturally,  connected  with  these,  the  conditions 
which  permit  the  access  of  bacteria  or  which, 
in  the  case  of  noxious  bacteria,  will  best  ensure 
protection. 

The  rationale  of  toxins  and  anti-toxins,  with 
the  relations  of  these  to  the  blood-serum  should 
also,  in  a  general  way,  be  known  ;  and  moreover 
the  student  should  be  prepared  to  learn  that  many 


THE    PLACE    OF    BIOLOGY  49 

diseases,  which  are  at  present  very  imperfectly 
understood — we  may  take,  for  instance,  forms  of 
insanity — have  their  vera  causa  in  the  action  of 
toxins,  and  require  to  be  treated  accordingly. 

Perhaps,  for  those  who  cannot  take  more  than 
the  shorter  courses  of  our  Common-sense  Biology, 
it  will  be  sufficient  to  consider  only  those  forms  of 
inimical  bacteria  which  we  have  to  combat  in  our 
own  islands.  But  the  writer  would  strongly  urge 
that,  at  least  among  women  of  the  leisured  classes, 
this  instruction  should  be  extended  to  cover  the 
bacterial  and  other  minute  parasitic  forms  of  disease 
most  prevalent  in  our  colonies  and  in  our  foreign 
possessions.  The  wives  of  officers,  civil  servants 
and  missionaries  ought  to  know,  in  a  clear,  scien- 
tific way,  the  causes,  modes  of  attack,  and  methods 
of  prevention  of  the  principal  tropical  diseases,  so 
far  as  these  have  at  present  been  made  out. 

METHOD   OF   STUDY 

What  should  be  the  method  of  this  study  ? 

The  sketching  out  of  a  course  would  be  far 
beyond  the  scope  of  this  paper.  Here  it  may 
only  be  said  that  the  work  must,  of  necessity, 
fall  into  two  main  parts.  There  must  be,  on  the 
one  hand,  field-naturalist's  work,  for  the  greater 
proportion  of  the  animals  ;md  plants  studied 
ought — so  far  as  is  in  any  way  practicable — to  be 
observed  in  their  natural  surroundings ;  and  there 
must  be,  on  the  other  hand,  work  allied  to  that 
of  the  gardener  and  farmer,  the  rearing  of  selected 

D 


50        HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

plants  and  animals  for  purposes  of  experiment  and 
of  closer  examination.  Nothing  worth  mentioning 
can  be  done  on  either  of  these  lines  without  some 
study  of  the  food  and  climatic  conditions  required 
by  each  creature ;  and  this  will  involve  a  study  of 
soils,  temperature,  atmosphere,  and  so  on — and 
also  a  study  of  the  nutrient  properties  of  those  organ- 
isms which  furnish  forth  the  food  of  other  organ- 
isms. From  this  knowledge,  gained  thus  through  di- 
rect observation  and  experiment,  would  be  deduced 
the  general  principles  which — so  to  express  it — gov- 
ern life  ;  and  upon  it  as  foundation  would  be  reared 
the  more  specialised  knowledge  of  all  that  pertains 
strictly  to  the  life  of  mankind.  Throughout  the 
aim  should  be  to  use  books  mainly  for  reference. 

It  is  not  necessary — as  it  might  have  been  a 
few  years  ago — to  show  that  a  training  on  these 
lines  is  better,  as  a  preparation  for  life,  than  that 
offered  by  the  ordinary  school  and  university 
curriculum  ;  but  it  may  be  worth  while  to  show 
how  far  and  why  it  is  superior  to  a  well-planned 
course  in  the  analytical  biology  of  the  laboratory. 
The  superiority  is  surely  twofold :  in  that  the 
kind  of  knowledge  acquired  is  of  greater  practical 
utility  ;  and,  again,  in  that  the  development  which 
it  ensures,  to  the  powers,  bodily  and  mental  of  the 
student,  is  more  varied,  thorough,  and  effective. 

COMMON-SENSE   BIOLOGY   AS   AN   ART 

As  has  been  said,  this  Common-sense   Biology 
partakes    of    the   nature    of    an    art.     Now    it    is 


THE    PLACE    OF    BIOLOGY  51 

characteristic  of  any  art  that,  for  its  satisfactory 
exercise,  it  demands  not  only  knowledge,  but 
also  intuition  ; — not  only  conscious  volition,  re- 
flection, and  endeavour,  but  also  subconscious 
nervous  and  muscular  activity,  and,  together  with 
that,  a  certain  emotional  state — a  trend,  tendency, 
disposition  of  the  whole  being,  which  likewise 
is  chiefly  subconscious. 

Without  such  a  disposition  to  begin  with  you 
cannot  have  an  artist.  Neither  will  you  get  an 
artist,  if,  on  the  other  hand,  this  disposition  is 
never  given  an  opportunity  for  displaying  itself 
and  developing  its  capacities.  You  cannot  play  an 
instrument  properly  if  you  have  no  music  in  you, 
and  the  music  in  you  will  never  come  forth  if 
you  have  no  instrument  to  play  upon.  When 
disposition  and  opportunity  are  happily  met,  and 
the  true  artist  arises,  it  is  in  the  subconscious 
that  the  chief  riches,  gained  by  her  work  and  ex- 
perience, are  stored,  and  from  the  subconscious 
that  she  draws  her  skill;  while  in  the  subconscious, 
again,  lie  the  mysterious  sources  of  original  inspira- 
tion. We  all  know  well  how  over-consciousness 
spoils  art,  as  it  spoils  most  kinds  of  action.  The 
happiest  effects,  the  loveliest  deeds  spring,  as  it 
were,  spontaneously. 

What  is  true  of  such  arts  as  music  and  poetry 
is  at  least  equally  true  of  the  art  of  living.  The 
rich  and  well-harmonised  subconsciousness  is  the 
proximate  source  whence  all  that  is  strongest  and 
most  beautiful  in  human  activity  is  derived.  The 
domestic  arts,  conversation,  power  of  rapid  judg- 


52       HOUSEHOLD   ADMINISTRATION 

ment  at  a  crisis,  the  care  of  the  sick,  the  care  of 
children,  tactful  daily  dealing  with  one's  fellows, 
all  these,  and  so  much  else,  we  recognise  to  be 
dependent  for  perfection  upon  practice  ;  and  that  is 
only  another  way  of  saying  that  they  depend  on  the 
efficiency  and  the  character  of  the  subconscious. 
But  the  character  and  efficiency  of  each  person's 
subconscious  being  depend  in  their  turn — not 
solely,  yet  principally — first,  upon  the  knowledge 
she  has  acquired,  and  secondly,  upon  the  actions 
she  has  habitually  performed.  Action  and  being, 
as  we  all  know  full  well,  are  for  ever  acting  and 
reacting  upon  one  another. 

Action  is  a  more  potent  influence  upon  the 
subconscious  even  than  knowledge ;  and  when 
to  mere  activity  there  is  added  emotion — such 
emotion,  for  instance,  as  pleasure  or  love,  or  solici- 
tude, or  desire  for  truth — we  may  feel  assured 
we  have  brought  into  play  the  most  powerful  of 
all  the  forces  which,  in  an  ordinary  way,  go  to 
vivify  and  to  form  human  character. 

The  subconscious  is  even  more  important  for 
women  than  for  men,  because  women  have  more 
calls  upon  their  emotions,  and  more  need  for 
intuition,  and  also  more  need  for  general  re- 
sourcefulness and  skill.  It  is  because  the  Com- 
mon-sense Biology  whose  claims  we  are  urging 
involves  so  much  activity,  such  care,  quickness 
of  observation,  patience  and  ready  wit,  that  it 
makes  a  better  preparation  for  life  than  the  more 
highly  specialized  work  in  the  Biology  of  the 
laboratory  alone  could  be. 


THE    PLACE    OF    BIOLOGY  53 


THE  GAINS  AND   LOSSES   OF  CIVILISATION 

Is  there,  it  may  now  be  asked,  anywhere  any 
definite  evidence  to  bear  out  this  contention. 
There  is :  and  in  abundance.  For  it,  however, 
we  must  look  away  from  civilised  communi- 
ties, especially  from  the  educated  portion  of 
their  populations.  Civilisation,  no  doubt,  gives 
much ;  but  it  also  takes  much  away.  It  has 
taken  away  much  of  the  traditional  lore  of  women, 
and  more  and  more  of  their  traditional  activities. 
This  does  not  merely  mean  that  the  practical 
ability  and  knowledge  of  civilised  women  is  greatly 
restricted ;  it  means  also  that  the  peculiar  in- 
tuitive wisdom  of  women — the  fruit  of  a  richly- 
stored  subconsciousness — is  much  diminished. 
In  capacity  for  pure  thought  the  educated  woman 
of  civilised  communities  no  doubt  excels  all  the 
rest :  in  most  other  respects  the  barbarian  or 
savage  woman  will — with  some  few  exceptions — 
probably  be  found  her  superior,  whether  judged 
merely  by  her  mastery  of  the  conditions  amid 
which  she  has  to  work,  or,  more  broadly,  by  the 
amount  of  her  real  knowledge  and  the  range  of 
her  effective  capacities. 

Take,  as  an  example,  the  Eskimo  woman,  who  is 
considered  to  represent  the  woman  of  palaeolithic 
times.  As  there  is  no  Eskimo  Board  of  Educa- 
tion— no  paraphernalia  of  Primary,  Secondary, 
Technical,  and  other  Schools,  with  their  red  tape 
and  officialism — she  is  free  to  carry  on  the  tradi- 


54        HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

tion  of  her  ancestresses,  and  to  rear,  in  the  good 
old  ways,  children  who  grow  up  to  be  sturdy  men 
and  women.  The  preparation  she  had  for  her 
task  was  chiefly  that  of  watching  and  imitating  her 
own  mother.  Thus,  as  a  child,  she  followed  all  the 
processes  of  turning  the  dead  reindeer  to  account 
— learning  thereby  an  economy  and  an  unwilling- 
ness to  waste  which  were  essentially  scientific — 
learning,  too,  subconsciously.  She  saw  the  flesh  of 
the  reindeer  made  into  pemmican — cut  into  thin 
slices,  and  dried  in  the  sun  or  in  the  smoke  of  a 
slow  fire,  then  pounded  between  stones  (the  use  of 
stones  is  worth  noticing)  and  stored  under  a  cover 
of  melted  fat,  poured  over  it  in  due  proportion. 
She  saw  the  bones — after  the  marrow  had  been 
extracted  from  them — pounded  down  and  boiled 
to  get  out  the  residual  fat  ;  the  horns  set  aside  to 
make  fish-hooks,  chisels,  needles,  and  fishing- 
spears,  work  for  the  long  winter  evenings  ;  the  skin 
carefully  dressed  with  a  split  bone  and  cut  into 
shape  to  make  clothing,  and  snow-shoes,  thongs, 
bow-strings,  fishing-nets,  and  so  on.  The  very 
tendons  make  threads  for  sewing  :  and  the  garments 
thus  fashioned  are  not  only  strong  and  service- 
able, but  beautiful  with  that  particular  beauty, 
which  may  perhaps  be  called  barbaric,  but  which 
almost  invariably  denotes  vigour  and  fulness  of 
subconscious  life.  The  Eskimo  women  also  make 
their  own  boats  and  their  own  tools  ;  they  are  good 
fishers  and  hunters.  Their  year's  work  comprises 
an  exercise  of  dexterity  and  quick  wit  of  which 
the  ordinary  Englishwoman  can  have  no  idea. 


THE    PLACE    OF    BIOLOGY  55 

We  might  take  as  another  example  the  North 
American  Indian  woman,  with  her  varied  forest- 
lore  ;  but,  since  space  is  limited,  let  us  pass  for 
one  further  illustration  to  the  despised  Australian 
aboriginal.  She  too  knows  and  does  things  worthy 
of  our  admiration  and  imitation.  For  instance  the 
English  housewife's  preparation  of  the  household 
food  is  nothing  like  so  conscientious  as  the  Aus- 
tralian's, whose  proceedings  have  the  keen  dis- 
interested concentration  proper  to  a  bit  of  scientific 
research.  Thus,  to  take  but  one  example  of  the  pro- 
cesses connected  with  the  preparation  of  one  form 
of  food — a  seed  of  a  species  of  eucalyptus  :  "  With  a 
hooked  stick  she  pulls  down  the  terminal  branches 
of  the  tree  and  spreads  them  out  to  dry  on  a 
piece  of  ground  cleared  for  the  purpose.  After 
allowing  them  to  lie  there  for  a  period  determined 
by  temperature,  she  collects  the  distal  ends  of  the 
branches,  damps  them  and  brushes  the  seeds  off 
into  water.  For  a  period  of  two  or  more  hours 
these  seeds  are  kept  soaking,  but  the  water  is 
repeatedly  changed,  so  as  to  remove  all  traces  of 
the  <  gum.'  After  this  they  are  dried  and  ground 
on  a  stone.  Again,  she  builds  their  rough,  but 
wisely  devised  home  most  carefully  according  to 
ancient  tradition.  She  takes  her  little  girl,  armed 
with  a  miniature  digging-stick,  out  to  track  the 
honey- ant  with  her,  and  to  learn  by  the  way 
what  are  the  birds  and  beasts  and  plants,  friendly 
or  inimical,  which  surround  their  home-camp." 

Alongside  of  this  direct  learning  about  nature 
goes  the  learning  of  the  legends  and  traditions  of 


56        HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

the  tribe,  together  with  the  customary  dances, 
rituals,  and  religious  practices.  The  activity  of 
savage  life  is  everywhere  such  that  no  ano- 
malies like  our  physical  exercises  are  needed, 
— for  the  physique  of  the  young  men  and 
women  is  as  graceful,  strong,  and  enduring  as 
need  be. 

If  we  turn  to  savage  or  barbarian  peoples  higher 
in  the  scale  we  shall  find  their  knowledge,  abilities, 
and  accomplishments  higher  and  also  more  varied. 
But,  on  the  whole,  until  we  come  to  the  average 
modern  woman  of  a  civilised  community,  we  shall 
find  that  the  women — through  their  happily 
developed  subconsciousness  —  are  equal  to  the 
best  the  community  requires  of  them.  They 
do  not  call  their  training  Common-sense  Biology, 
but  that  is  what  it  practically  is.  They  know 
all  about  their  surroundings,  and  what  to  do 
therein.  And  grace  and  beauty  wait  upon  what 
they  do. 

This  ideal  is  not,  however,  quite  without  parallel 
among  the  more  highly  civilised  peoples.  The 
Greeks  conceived  of  Athene,  the  great  goddess  of 
wisdom  and  of  war,  as  also  Athene  Ergane,  the 
Workwoman,  the  goddess  of  handicrafts  in  the 
home.  In  our  own  country — to  take  examples 
near  to  us  and  familiar — the  names  of  Caroline 
Herschel,  Jane  Austen,  the  Brontes,  Mary  Somer- 
ville,  and  George  Eliot  not  only  attest  the  fact  that 
exquisite  skill  in  domestic  arts  is  not,  in  a  woman, 
incompatible  with  learning  and  genius,  but  may 
also  lead  us  to  suspect  that  the  exercise  of  this 


THE    PLACE    OF    BIOLOGY  57 

skill  actually  aided  and  furthered  their  better- 
known  achievements. 

In  our  civilised  communities — from  the  point 
of  view  of  the  subconscious — women  are  in  two 
ways  at  a  disadvantage.  First,  excessive  division 
of  labour,  with  our  dependence  upon  machinery, 
has  made  the  life  of  the  State  far  more  complicated 
than  in  former  days  ;  and  secondly,  the  activity  of 
the  individual,  from  the  same  causes,  is  far  more 
monotonous,  far  less  well-calculated  to  bring  out 
all  her  powers  and  train  her  being  as  a  whole,  than 
it  used  to  be.  Hence,  as  we  said,  women  have 
lost  a  good  deal  subconsciously — even  though,  in 
consciousness,  they  may  have  gained. 

There  is  nothing  in  which  the  character  of  the 
subconscious  is  more  clearly  seen  than  in  a 
person's  attitude  towards  the  great  mysteries  of 
life  :  towards  birth  and  marriage  and  death  on  the 
one  hand — towards  religion  on  the  other.  It  is, 
of  course,  matter  of  common  knowledge  that  in 
regard  to  marriage  the  customs  of  some  savage 
tribes  are  what  we  should  describe  as  licentious. 
A  truer  understanding  of  the  savage  mind  has, 
however,  mitigated  many  of  the  judgments  passed 
even  upon  the  worst  of  these  practices — at  least 
in  so  far  as  they  were  taken  to  indicate  gross  in- 
ward depravity  on  the  part  of  the  women.  And 
among  many  peoples  there  are  found  laws  and 
customs  of  renl  beauty  and  noble  significance, 
witnessing  to  reverence,  fine  intuition,  and  real  care 
for  the  highest  good  of  the  tribe.  And  in  general 
of  all  savage  races  it  may  be  said  that  whatever 


58        HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

their  laws  and  customs  are — though  perhaps  born 
of  ignorance  and  selfishness — they  feel  seriously 
about  them  as  about  sacred  things,  and  observe 
them  scrupulously. 

The  better  side  is  exemplified  chiefly  by  the 
women.  When  anthropological  work  is  mon 
largely  undertaken  by  women,  and  when,  through 
their  sympathy,  the  jealously  guarded  secrets  ol 
the  women's  tradition,  now  almost  entirely  un- 
known, are  yielded  up  to  us,  it  is  probable  that 
our  conceptions  of  savage  life  and  thought  wil 
have  to  be  radically  modified.  However  thai 
may  be,  it  is  even  now  sufficiently  well  knowi 
that  the  women  do  not  leave  the  question  of  repr< 
duction  and  marriage  to  chance  in  the  educatioi 
of  their  girls.  The  girls  are  definitely,  carefully, 
and  it  would  seem  often  tenderly,  taught  ;  and  if, 
among  some  peoples,  they  are  made  to  undergc 
great  sufferings,  a  closer  study  usually  reveal* 
in  these  the  effects  of  the  long  subjection  of  th< 
women  to  the  cruelty  and  uncontrolled  passioi 
of  the  men.  All  this  should  not  blind  us  to  th< 
fact  that  the  maternal  instinct  is  here  activel; 
grappling  with  the  great  realities  of  life :  an< 
we  may  contrast  this  with  the  ways  of  th< 
modern  woman  who,  less  developed  in  subcon- 
sciousness,  is  not  so  forcibly  impelled  to  makt 
any  such  attempt,  and,  for  the  most  part,  practi 
cally  lets  the  whole  thing  slide.  Here,  as  ii 
other  directions,  the  fuller  development  of  th< 
subconscious  would  compel  and  also  enable  u< 
to  correct  a  grave  omission :  while  the  know- 


THE    PLACE    OF    BIOLOGY  59 

ledge  necessarily  acquired  concerning  reproduc- 
tion and  birth  in  the  course  of  biological  work 
would  fill  up  that  which  has  hitherto  often  been 
wanting  even  in  the  best-inspired  women  who 
have  dealt  with  this  question. 

It  must  by  now  have  been  made  clear  that  our 
object  in  advocating  this  Common-sense  Biology 
is  to  recover  what  was  excellent  in  the  equipment 
of  the  women  of  the  past,  and  to  unite  it  with  what 
is  most  excellent,  and  most  germane  to  woman's 
life,  in  the  methods  and  knowledge  of  the  present. 
Since  modern  household  life  is  deficient  in  the 
requisite  opportunities  we  are  obliged  to  have 
recourse  to  definite  educational  schemes.  But 
education  of  this  sort  will  assuredly  continue  to 
be  necessary  even  after  many  improvements  in 
the  home  have  been  brought  to  pass ;  because  it 
will  always  be  necessary  to  keep  the  knowledge 
and  activities  of  women  in  correspondence  with 
the  advance  of  science.  At  the  same  time  it  is 
worth  while  to  remember  that  the  earlier  the 
child  begins  to  observe  living  things,  to  live  with 
them,  learn  about  them,  and  take  care  of  them,  the 
better  the  final  result  will  be;  while  the  ideally 
trained  mother  in  the  ideal  home,  herself  prac- 
tical and  active,  will  be  able  to  do  more  for  her 
children  in  this  regard  than  most  people,  perhaps, 
would  now  dream  of. 


60        HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 


THE   INFLUENCE   OF  COMMON-SENSE   BIO- 
LOGICAL TRAINING  ON  SOCIAL  WORK 

Biological  training  of  the  order  we  have  beei 
considering  is,  we  believe,  desirable  for  all  womei 
in  the  interests,  first,  of  the  home  and  of  the  rear- 
ing of   children.     But   it  is  equally  desirable  for 
the  women  who  are  not  destined  to  be  wives  and 
mothers,  and  particularly  so  as  a  foundation  for 
any  kind  of  university  work,  even  for  the  different 
literary  or  philosophical  schools. 

Here  it  is,  perhaps,  worth  while  to  urge  upon 
women  the  claims  of  the  other  great  division  o 
Biology,  that  of  the  laboratory.  A  considerable 
number  of  women  who  go  up  to  the  universities 
have,  indeed,  intellectual  abilities  deserving  specia 
cultivation,  yet  abilities  which  show  no  very 
distinct  inclination  in  any  one  direction.  These 
have  been  very  commonly  drafted  into  the  study 
of  history.  It  may  be  questioned  whether  some 
branch  of  Biology  would  not  be  better  for  them,  anc 
more  useful  to  the  community.  Women  working 
at  Biology  in  the  universities  ought  to  serve,  anc 
to  aim  at  serving,  as  the  channels  by  which  each 
fresh  addition  of  scientific  knowledge  finds  its  wa) 
to,  and  its  appropriate  place  in,  the  schemes  o 
Common-sense  Biology  generally  obtaining. 

In  another  field — the  field  of  public  work — ii 
is  to  be  hoped  that  ere  long  a  knowledge  o: 
biology  will  come  to  be  considered  a  sine  qua  non 
for  women.  It  would  be  superfluous  to  poin 


THE    PLACE   OF    BIOLOGY  61 

out  in  how  many  kinds  of  public  work  women 
are  gradually  coming  to  the  fore — in  those  espe- 
cially which  deal  with  education  and  with  the 
care  of  the  disabled.  Already  the  influence  and 
the  peculiar  gifts  of  women  have  in  some  degree 
made  themselves  felt ;  but  these  might  operate 
much  more  powerfully  if  they  were  more  com- 
monly associated  with  .scientific  knowledge — with 
a  knowledge  of  those  branches  of  biology,  more 
especially  of  bio-chemistry  and  bio-physics,  which 
bear  most  nearly  upon  humanity. 

It  would  take  up  too  much  space  to  give  an 
account  of  the  many  ways  in  which  biology  is 
here  of  service  :  two  great  lines  of  utility  may  just 
be  indicated  as  examples. 

First,  biology  would  lead  to  certain  modifica- 
tions of  practice — particularly  in  our  treatment  of 
children,  and  of  persons  deemed  criminal  or  insane. 
The  biologist,  when  anything  was  amiss — before 
she  pronounced  any  one  to  be  mentally  or  morally 
unsound,  defective,  or  bad — would  presume,  to 
start  with,  that  there  was  some  definite  physical 
trouble  to  be  set  right,  not  necessarily  anything 
dangerous  in  itself  or  mysterious.  In  New  York 
they  now  make  it  a  rule  to  examine  for  adenoids 
every  young  offender  against  the  law,  before 
punishing  him  ;  and  it  is  amazing  how  often 
adenoids  are  found,  and  when  removed  carry  the 
child's  wickedness  away  with  them.  Adenoids 
and  divers  glands  are  responsible  for  a  great 
proportion  of  youthful  wrongdoing  ;  and  yet 
other  physical  troubles  will  account  for  a  great 


62        HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

proportion  of  the  rest.  The  writer  herself  once 
came  across  a  young  girl  who  was,  in  intention  and 
attempt,  a  murderess — yet  was  so  only  through 
the  effect  of  a  common  physical  condition,  easy 
enough  to  treat  when  once  ascertained.  Until 
our  general  conception  of  a  child — or  indeed  of 
a  human  being — is  a  more  truly  biological  one, 
framed  more  closely  upon  the  facts  of  its  bodily 
life,  we  shall  have  but  little  effective  intuition  into 
its  state.  And  such  a  sound  biological  conception 
is  not  to  be  had  apart  from  some  good  measure 
of  sound  biological  knowledge. 

When,  however,  the  most  careful  observation 
reveals  no  local  or  definite  mischief  to  be  dealt 
with  in  the  person  under  consideration,  the  biolo- 
gist will  still  not  hastily  set  him  down  as  bad — 
or  even  as  unsound  or  defective.  He  will  next 
suspect  that  he  is  one  whose  physical  organisation 
is  not  fitted  for  its  environment :  if  he  can  be 
placed  in  a  better  environment  perhaps  he  will 
grow  better.  If  this  change  is,  from  whatever 
circumstances,  impossible,  the  biologist  in  treating 
him,  however  troublesome  he  may  be,  will  still 
never  regard  him  as  wholly  responsible  for  what 
he  is,  will  still  try  to  ascertain  the  exact  ways  in 
which  the  environment  presses  injuriously  upon 
him,  and  to  help  him  in  those  definite  particulars. 
If  we  desire  the  work  of  our  reformatories  and 
prisons  and  the  disciplinary  work  of  our  schools 
really  to  be  and  not  merely  to  appear  effective, 
it  is  only  by  such  nicely-calculated  methods  that 
we  shall  attain  our  object. 


THE    PLACE    OF    BIOLOGY  63 

This  brings  us  to  our  second  point.  Biology, 
when  a  knowledge  of  it  is  more  widely  spread 
among  us,  will  assuredly  work  a  change  in  public 
opinion.  We  have  among  us  thousands  of  men 
and  women  whom  we  account  failures  in  life  ; 
whose  existence  constitutes  our  gravest  social 
problem.  The  drunkard,  the  wastrel,  the  thief, 
the  prostitute — these  are  characters  whom  society 
thrusts  out.  They  have  proved  themselves  un- 
fitted for  their  environment  ;  they  cannot  act  in 
it  with  any  regularity  or  seemliness :  its  laws  are 
not  their  laws.  And  the  assumption  most  gene- 
rally is  that  these  are  beings  of  a  lower  stamp 
than  the  average,  unhappily  surviving  in,  or  at 
war  with,  an  environment  which  postulates  a 
nobler  sort  of  men  and  women.  Is  it  so  ? 

The  finer  and  more  delicately  poised  a 
mechanism — whether  it  be  chemical  balance,  gal- 
vanometer, electroscope  or  what  not — the  more 
sengitive  is  it  to  its  surroundings.  Thus  the 
instruments  once  at  Kew  Observatory  have  had  to 
be  transferred  to  the  wilds  of  Scotland  to  ensure 
their  perfect  working — rendered  impossible  at  Kew 
by  the  noise  and  vibrations  of  encroaching  London. 
Thus,  again,  the  mind  of  Darwin  required  for  its 
proper  functioning  the  quiet  of  a  study  at  Down, 
in  the  heart  of  the  country.  A  ray  of  light  will 
spoil  a  delicate  experiment :  the  presence  in  an 
observatory  of  one  steel  key  will  hinder  the  work 
of  the  instruments.  A  boy  commits  suicide 
because  of  the  noise  of  the  factory  in  which 
he  is  compelled  to  work.  A  girl  drowns  her- 


64        HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

self  because  the  worries  of  her  home  are  in- 
tolerable. 

The  point  I  would  press  is  that  these  different 
examples  belong  fundamentally  to  the  same  cate- 
gory. Whether  it  be  the  instrument  devised  by 
man,  or  whether  it  be  the  human  nervous  system 
itself,  that  which  we  are  looking  at  is  a  mechanism 
too  delicate  for  the  cruel  exigencies  of  an  unyielding 
gross  environment.  We  have  but  to  reflect  on 
one  organ  alone — on  the  exceeding  fineness  of 
structure,  and  nicety  of  adjustment,  and  definite- 
ness  of  sense-limit,  of  the  eye — in  order  to  realise 
that  the  comparison  between  the  human  nervous 
system  and  the  most  delicate  of  our  delicate 
instruments  is  more  than  justifiable. 

How  do  we  know,  when  dealing  with  any 
given  drunkard,  that  we  have  not  before  us  a 
fine,  fine  nature,  to  which  the  harsh  and  low 
conditions  of  our  Western  civilisation  have  simply 
proved  intolerable  ?  How  do  we  know  that, 
instead  of  blaming  him  and  trying  to  adjust  him 
to  the  world,  we  ought  not  rather  to  blame  the 
world,  and  try  to  make  it  a  fit  place  for  him  to 
live  in  ? 

This  consideration — strictly  scientific  as  it  is — 
ought  to  have  very  great  weight  in  that  new 
department  of  biological  work  which  has  been 
named  Eugenics.  Before  lightly  saying  of  any 
stock  that  it  is  not  good  to  breed  from,  or  that 
it  is  good  to  breed  from,  pains  should  surely  be 
taken  to  ascertain  whether  irregularities  and  disease 
evinced  by  members  of  that  stock  do  not  in 


THE    PLACE    OF    BIOLOGY  65 

reality  proceed  from  their  superiority  to  their 
environment  and  to  the  average  men  and  women 
about  them.  Individually  they  may  be  irreclaim- 
able, yet,  thrown  out  of  gear,  miserable  and 
wasted  as  they  are,  they  may  be  the  carriers  of 
the  finest  hopes  of  humanity,  of  a  promise  for 
the  fulfilment  of  which  we  are  not  yet  ready. 
Perhaps  there  is  a  tendency  to  be  a  little  over- 
hasty  in  our  estimates  of  good  and  bad  stocks 
to  breed  from.  Perhaps  we  have  not  yet  fully 
learnt  either  the  significance  of  recessive  charac- 
ters or  the  importance  of  the  mere  fact  that  the 
unit-characters  of  a  human  being  are  immensely 
numerous,  and  their  inter-relations  therefore  ex- 
tremely intricate.  And  yet,  again,  perhaps  we 
are  too  intolerant  of  variety,  too  eager  for 
uniformity. 

Here  in  England  we  have  a  mixed  population, 
sprung  from  many  diverse  origins.  The  differ- 
ences between  individuals  are  many  and  great. 
Yet  the  majority  of  the  population  is  thrust  into 
the  grooves  of  one  educational  system,  and 
thereafter  compelled  to  settle  down  to  occupa- 
tions and  modes  of  life  which  are  the  same  for 
thousands  together.  Any  attempt  to  leave  the 
common  rut  is  looked  at  askance.  What  wonder 
that  there  are  rebels,  and  that  the  rebels  are  un- 
happy !  A  society  constructed  in  conformity  to 
true  biological  principles,  instead  of  suppressing 
variety  would  give  it  welcome  as  one  of  the  most 
precious  of  national  characteristics,  and  would 
purposely  adjust  itself  and  its  systems  with  more 

E 


66        HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

accuracy  so  as  to  give  every  sort  and  type  of  person 
the  best  possible  chance  for  developing  his  or 
her  peculiar  gifts.  In  a  society  so  constituted,  very 
rare  indeed  would  be  the  occurrence  of  insanity. 

These  considerations  should  have  weight  in  yet 
another  direction :  in  determining  the  counsel 
which  ought  to  be  given  to  girls  as  to  the  choice 
of  a  mate. 

The  importance  of  soundness  of  stock  has  here 
too  been  well  brought  into  prominence  by  the 
workers  in  Eugenics  ;  and  perhaps  it  may  not  be 
amiss  to  make  one  or  two  suggestions  with  a  view 
to  obviating  a  too  narrow  application  of  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  sound  stock. 

We  must  remember,  first,  that  disease  is  not 
necessarily  evidence  of  unsoundness.  Like  some 
forms  of  moral  obliquity,  it  may  be  merely 
evidence  of  a  quality  in  the  stock  which  renders  it 
unable  to  tolerate  a  given  environment.  And  this 
quality  may  be  in  itself  an  excellence  of  the  most 
precious  kind.  This  would  be  the  true  account 
of  many  cases  of  insanity,  while  others  would  be 
covered  by  the  action  of  toxins  on  the  brain. 
Heredity,  we  are  told  in  many  instances  of 
"  insanity,"  is  more  probably  a  heredity  of 
"special  liability  to  the  production  of  toxins  or 
to  the  action  of  toxins  on  the  brain,"  than  heredity 
of  insanity  proper.  This  view  will  naturally  en- 
tail modifications  in  our  methods  of  treating  the 
tf  insane,"  as  well  as  a  considerable  change  in 
public  opinion  with  regard  to  the  significance  of 
insanity. 


THE    PLACE    OF    BIOLOGY  67 

And,  secondly,  we  must  remember  the  import- 
ance of  the  environment,  more  especially  of  the 
human  part  of  it.  A  man  of  sound  stock  is  very 
commonly  brought  up  as  a  sportsman,  whose  first 
idea  is  to  kill ;  or  as  an  idler,  whose  chief  occupa- 
tions are  eating,  drinking,  and  smoking,  with  travel 
and  some  amount  of  gambling  thrown  in  by  way 
of  variety.  Or  he  may  easily  be  above  all  things 
a  money-maker  and  a  lover  of  money.  His 
habits  of  this  sort  will  determine  to  a  very  great 
extent  the  early — and  that  is  the  critical — envi- 
ronment of  his  children.  The  tendency  in  his 
family  will  be  towards  uniformity,  towards  one 
level,  and  that  not  a  high  level,  of  thought,  activity, 
and  character.  His  example  and  influence  will 
go  very  far  to  counteract  the  advantages  presum- 
ably ensured  by  the  soundness  of  his  stock. 

On  the  other  hand,  a  man  whose  ancestry  is 
eugenically  not  flawless  may  have  such  wide 
interests,  so  many  and  such  fine  powers,  so  much 
skill  in  different  activities,  and  so  high  and 
generous  a  personal  ideal,  that  the  environment 
which  his  manner  of  life  would  make  for  his 
children — the  inspiration  he  would  be  to  them — 
might  well  be  expected  very  largely,  if  not  wholly, 
to  counteract  the  disadvantages  of  defects  in  the 
stock. 

No  doubt  this  principle  should  be  applied  with 
all  reasonableness  and  care,  but  it  is  extremely 
important  for  the  highest  welfare,  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  best  possibilities  of  the  people,  that 
it  should  be  definitely  recognised. 


68        HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 


ANTHROPOLOGY   A   BRANCH    OF   BIOLOGY 

A  word  must  here  be  said  as  to  the  importance 
— more  especially  to  the  biological  student  who 
aims  at  social  work — of  some  knowledge  of 
Anthropology.  Biology  is,  in  fact,  incomplete 
without  anthropology;  for  in  its  absence  there  is  a 
danger  of  applying  biological  principles  too  sum- 
marily, and  therefore  unscientifically,  to  humanity. 
Anthropology,  of  course,  goes  behind  art  and 
history  and  the  literary  ideas  current  among 
civilised  peoples.  It  gives  life  and  meaning  to 
customs,  legends,  handicrafts,  details  of  dress, 
ornament,  and  furniture  which  otherwise  go  un- 
heeded or  misunderstood.  It  helps  to  interpret 
for  us  the  ways  of  contemporary  peoples  and 
classes  which  are  on  a  level  different  from  our 
own.  It  gives  a  unity  in  infinite  diversity  to  our 
whole  conception  of  humanity.  When  more 
widely  studied,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  it 
will  cause  us  to  reconstruct  many  of  our  judg- 
ments, both  concerning  the  history  of  the  past 
and  concerning  the  civilisations  of  the  present 
day. 

We  cannot  but  believe  that  a  time  will  come 
when  it  will  be  assumed  of  all  women  that  they 
know  the  broad  truths  of  biology,  just  as  it  is 
now  assumed  that  they  know  the  alphabet.  It 
will  be  taken  for  granted  that  they  have  mastered 
the  essential  domestic  arts  with  their  own  hands, 


THE    PLACE    OF    BIOLOGY  69 

just  as  we  now  take  for  granted  they  can  write 
with  their  own  hands.  We  shall  have  reached 
then  the  beginning  of  a  new  era — an  era  which 
we  may  hope  will  unite  the  excellences,  moral, 
aesthetic,  and  hygienic,  of  earlier  times,  with  the 
excellences,  more  purely  intellectual  and  scientific, 
of  our  own  day. 


WOMAN'S  SYNTHETIC   POWERS  AS  AN 
INSTRUMENT  TO  EFFICIENCY 

The  most  effective  instruments  for  bringing  this 
about  are  the  synthetic  powers  of  woman  herself, 
combined  with  her  practical  skill  and  her  ready 
intuition.  As  we  have  tried  to  show,  the  best 
chance  for  the  eliciting  and  the  disciplining  of 
these  powers  of  hers,  so  as  best  to  fit  them  for 
the  struggle  of  modern  life,  is  afforded  by  biology. 

It  must  be  clear  how  many  reforms — impossible 
to  the  nominally  educated  women  of  the  present  day 
— would  flow  easily  from  this  better  training  of 
women  ;  for  those  so  trained  could  certainly  not  en- 
dure the  futility  of  some  of  our  educational  ideals, 
nor  that  haphazard  disregard  of  the  nature  and 
needs  of  the  child,  which  still  characterises  so  much 
of  our  educational  method.  They  could  not  support 
the  continuance  of  many  of  the  common  evils  of 
modern  life — the  noise  and  dirt,  the  brutality  of 
manners,  the  scamping  of  work,  the  rush  for 
pleasure.  These,  however  they  may  or  may  not 
affect  the  adult,  are  plainly  impairing  the  best 


yo        HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

promise  of  the  children  ;  and  that  fact  will  be 
enough  for  the  truly  educated  woman. 

Knowing,  too,  as  she  will,  more  accurately  and 
scientifically  than  women  to-day  generally  know, 
how  largely  energy  and  depression,  irritability  and 
calm  strength  are  questions  of  right  or  wrong 
food,  the  educated  woman  may  be  trusted  to  find 
a  means  to  put  an  end  to  the  crying  iniquity  of 
adulteration.  Directly  or  indirectly,  by  the  pres- 
sure of  her  determination  that  the  race  shall  no 
longer  be  offered  a  sacrifice  to  Mammon,  she  will 
assuredly  find  a  way  to  put  an  end  to  all  not 
absolutely  necessary  dangerous  trades. 

The  opposition  of  such  women  to  what  is 
wrong  in  social  custom,  in  government,  in  educa- 
tion, will  be  a  very  different  thing  from  the 
opposition  of  well-meaning  but  imperfectly  in- 
structed women  on  the  one  hand ;  or,  on  the 
other,  that  of  a  few  thoroughly  trained  and  informed 
ones  working  more  or  less  in  isolation,  scattered 
over  the  country.  It  would  mean  a  body  of 
sound,  enlightened,  disinterested  public  opinion, 
so  vast,  so  far-reaching,  yet  so  intimately  cog- 
nisant of  all  the  little  daily  details  of  life  in  the 
home,  that  it  is  difficult  to  see  what  other  body 
of  opinion  could  be  found  mighty  enough  to 
resist  it. 

If,  unhappily,  this  advance  should  not  be  made 
— if  our  present  Western  civilisation  be  allowed 
to  run  unchecked  down  the  groove  into  which 
it  has  sunk — there  seems  nothing  before  it  but 
destruction. 


SCIENCE   IN   THE   HOUSEHOLD 

BY  MRS.  W.  N.  SHAW 


SCIENCE   IN   THE   HOUSEHOLD 

THE  slow  development  of  the  demand  for  the 
training  of  girls  of  the  middle  and  upper  classes 
in  the  details  of  household  management  has  been 
to  a  great  extent  due  to  the  common  observation 
that  persons  of  imperfect  education  are  frequently 
proficient  in  the  domestic  arts,  and  to  the  assump- 
tion that  good  housekeeping  consists  entirely  in 
the  efficient  exercise  of  those  arts. 

The  fact  that  in  the  early  Victorian  period  girls 
living  much  at  home  learned,  almost  insensibly, 
from  their  mothers  the  routine  of  daily  duties  in 
the  house,  has  made  elder  women  look  askance 
on  the  lectures  dealing  with  domestic  economy 
which  appear  to  them  so  needless,  and  has  led 
them  to  foster  the  superstition  that  woman  qua 
woman  should  be  equal  to  any  demand  that  may 
be  made  upon  her  as  organiser  of  her  own  house- 
hold. 

That  the  housekeeping  of  to-day  is  more  com- 
plex than  that  of  half  a  century  ago  is  incredible 
to  the  older  woman  who  remembers  the  baking 
and  brewing,  and  divers  other  matters,  that  de- 
manded the  attention  of  the  notable  housewives 
of  the  forties  and  fifties  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

73 


74        HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

That  the  horizon  of  women's  lives  has  widened, 
and  that  other  interests  than  those  appertaining  to 
their  immediate  circle  claim  their  attention,  is  not 
acceptable  to  all  ;  it  is  however  the  claims  of 
these  outside  interests  that  have  awakened  in  the 
more  thoughtful  the  desire  so  to  order  their 
households  that  they  may  in  some  degree  free 
themselves  from  petty  cares,  and  be  able  to  help 
in  the  amelioration  of  the  lives  of  less  fortunate 
persons  ;  or  to  pursue  other  branches  of  knowledge 
in  which  they  have  learned  to  take  a  keen  intel- 
lectual pleasure. 

It  is  a  paradox  that  one  of  the  difficulties  with 
which  the  modern  mistress  has  to  contend  is  the 
fact  that  her  house  is  "  replete  with  every  modern 
convenience."  Every  labour-saving  contrivance, 
every  mechanical  convenience,  calls  for  vigilance 
to  ensure  its  proper  use,  and  for  knowledge  as  to 
the  ways  in  which  it  may  fail,  and  of  the  method 
of  readjustment  if  it  should  happen  to  do  FO.  No 
apparatus  which  is  not  thoroughly  understood  by 
the  mistress  will  be  well  used  by  the  servants,  and 
servants  will  rarely  if  ever  exercise  any  knowledge 
they  possess  to  prevent  the  expense  of  calling  in 
a  workman.  If  the  mistress  of  a  house  can  use 
such  ordinary  tools  as  a  hammer,  a  screwdriver, 
a  gluepot,  and  a  soldering-iron,  a  great  deal  of 
expense  may  be  saved  in  small  repairs ;  on  the 
other  hand,  ignorant  meddling  with  scientific 
apparatus  may  be  worse  than  useless.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  a  course  of  instruction 
in  natural  philosophy,  combined  with  work  in 


SCIENCE    IN    THE    HOUSEHOLD      75 

well-equipped  laboratory  and  workshop,  should 
ind  a  place  in  the  curriculum  of  every  girls' 
;hool,  whether  elementary  or  secondary,  as  this 
•aining  lays  the  surest  foundation  for  a  super- 
structure of  experimental  domestic  science.  The 
argument  against  including  the  application  of  the 
physical  sciences  to  domestic  methods  in  the 
ordinary  educational  course  of  every  girl,  namely, 
that  she  may  not  be  called  upon  to  keep  a  house 
of  her  own,  cannot  be  sustained  ;  there  are  no 
circumstances  in  which  knowledge  of  the  laws 
which  govern  the  health  and  well-being  of  human 
beings  can  be  useless.  We  all  live  in  houses, 
either  our  own  or  other  people's,  and  we  are  all 
liable  to  disease  and  discomfort  caused  by  the 
faulty  construction  of  the  house  or  the  unhealthy 
practices  of  the  inmates. 


THE  AIM  AND  METHODS  OF  MODERN 
EDUCATION 

The  aim  of  education  is  to  enable  a  person  to 
act  wisely  in  every  emergency  of  life  whatever  his 
particular  calling  may  be,  but  it  is  hardly  possible  to 
act  wisely  without  some  knowledge  of  the  relation 
between  cause  and  effect.  This  is  true  whether 
we  are  engaged  in  the  practical  affairs  of  life,  in 
the  pursuit  of  knowledge,  or  in  the  effort  to  extend 
knowledge  by  research.  It  is  sometimes  argued 
that  a  woman  of  trained  intellect  can  easily  acquire 
the  art  of  housekeeping,  and  this  is  no  doubt 


76       HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

the  case  if  we  limit  the  art  to  the  choice  and 
supervision  of  competent  domestics,  but  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  there  are  many  women  of  trained 
intellect  who  not  only  suffer  themselves  but  en- 
tail suffering  on  others  from  inability  to  discern 
good  housekeeping,  in  our  sense  of  the  word,  from 
bad.  It  must  be  remembered  that  courses  of 
education  should  be  framed  for  the  training  of 
unmethodical  and  unpractical  minds,  which  may 
and  often  do  accompany  the  highest  forms  of  intel- 
lect, as  well  as  for  those  of  a  naturally  orderly  and 
practical  bent. 

We  all  consciously  or  unconsciously  make  use  of 
the  facts  of  science  :  we  do  not  send  eggs  by  parcel 
post  merely  placed  in  a  box,  we  do  not  even  send 
one  egg  in  a  box  that  exactly  fits  it,  we  are  careful 
to  surround  each  egg  with  soft  paper  or  some 
other  elastic  material  in  sufficient  quantity  to  dis- 
tribute the  effects  of  the  blows  that  we  know  the 
box  will  be  subjected  to  in  the  post,  so  that  the 
eggs  may  not  be  broken ;  if  we  place  a  tray  of 
china  on  a  table,  we  are  careful  that  it  should  not 
project  beyond  the  table  so  as  to  fall  when  we  let 
it  go  ;  we  do  not  pour  hot  water  into  cut-glass 
tumblers,  and  we  do  not  mix  effervescing  drinks 
in  wine-glasses.  We  should  call  a  person  ignorant 
who  was  unaware  of  the  probable  results  of  doing 
the  things  enumerated  above  ;  but  if  the  accidents 
following  want  of  knowledge  were  always  so  simple, 
ignorance  would  not  be  a  matter  of  much  import- 
ance, and  we  might  be  willing  to  let  our  girls  learn 
by  experience.  Unfortunately,  the  neglect  of  a 


SCIENCE    IN    THE    HOUSEHOLD       77 

scientific  law  has  led  in  the  past,  and  may  lead  in 
the  future,  to  much  more  serious,  even  fatal  results, 
and  Solomon  has  applied  a  not  very  complimen- 
tary epithet  to  those  who  have  wisdom  forced 
upon  them  by  involuntary  experience.  It  is  to 
the  publication  of  statistics  which  show  the  alarm- 
ing spread  of  such  diseases  as  consumption  and 
the  terrible  waste  of  infant  life,  that  we  owe  the 
awakening  of  the  public  mind  to  the  need  for 
systematic  training  in  science  and  scientific 
method. 


THE   VALUE   OF   A  SCIENTIFIC   TRAINING 

Scientific  method  seeks  to  establish  relations 
between  isolated  facts  or  phenomena,  and  the 
relation  generally  takes  the  form  of  cause  and 
effect  ;  so  that  persons  with  a  scientific  training 
are  accustomed  to  examine  the  grounds  for  con- 
sidering this  relation  of  cause  and  effect  in  cir- 
cumstances which  are  selected  with  a  view  to 
exhibiting  the  reality  of  the  relation.  From  that 
training  it  becomes  possible  for  them,  when  con- 
fronted with  circumstances  presenting  some  diffi- 
culty, to  form  a  better  opinion  as  to  what  is  the 
cause  of  the  difficulty  than  they  could  if  they 
were  confronted  with  the  same  difficulty  without 
the  previous  training.  Any  attentive  observer  of 
human  nature  will  be  struck  by  the  fact  that 
every  person  is  accustomed  to  refer  every  event 
to  some  cause  ;  if  it  is  an  illness,  the  occasion  for 


78        HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

contracting  the  illness  is  denned  ;  if  it  is  any  un- 
foreseen event  in  the  domestic  economy,  a  reason 
is  nearly  always  forthcoming  ;  the  question  which 
the  housewife  is  called  upon  to  decide  is  whether 
the  reason  offered  is  a  real  and  sufficient  one. 
Meteorologists  tell  a  familiar  story  of  an  Indian 
nabob  who  found  that  there  was  a  deposit  of  mois- 
ture on  the  outside  of  his  tumbler  of  brandy  and 
water,  and  tasting  it  with  his  ringer,  remarked  it 
was  very  curious  that  the  water  came  through  the 
glass  but  the  brandy  did  not.  Plenty  of  reasons 
offered  for  domestic  incidents  have  no  better 
ground  of  fact  than  the  nabob's  opinion  that  the 
water  came  through  the  glass. 

A  good  deal  of  the  comfort  of  a  modern  house 
turns  upon  a  right  judgment  as  regards  cause  and 
effect,  and  therefore  some  preparation  which  will  fit 
the  housewife  to  appreciate  the  rights  and  wrongs  of 
domestic  reasoning  is  an  indispensable  qualification 
for  success.  It  is  not  always  possible  for  the  most 
profound  student  to  oifer  offhand  the  true  explana- 
tion of  various  facts  of  domestic  life,  but  it  is 
possible  to  approach  the  consideration  of  these 
questions  with  some  hope  of  deciding  whether  the 
explanation  offered  is  a  true  or  a  fictitious  one. 
The  ability  for  this  is  largely  a  question  of  habit 
of  mind  or  training ;  and  for  our  purpose  the 
training  must  include  those  departments  of  know- 
ledge, the  laws  of  which  find  daily  expression  in 
the  manifold  experiences  of  domestic  life.  The 
ultimate  foundation  for  these  laws  is  to  be  found 
in  the  study  of  Physics,  which  deals  with  those 


SCIENCE    IN    THE    HOUSEHOLD       79 

changes  in  the  state  of  matter  which  stop  short  of 
the  alteration  of  its  composition  ;  of  Chemistry, 
which  deals  with  changes  involving  an  alteration 
of  the  composition  of  the  substances  under  con- 
sideration ;  and  of  Physiology,  which  is  the  identi- 
fication of  the  processes  which  take  place  in  living 
animals  and  plants  and  their  relation  to  the  laws 
of  physics  and  chemistry.  Without  a  knowledge 
of  the  fundamental  principles  of  these  sciences 
and  of  the  methods  by  which  those  principles  are 
established,  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  any  person 
can  deal  adequately  with  the  common  experiences 
of  life. 

It  is  true  that  experience,  if  it  is  sufficiently 
extensive  and  prolonged,  may  lead  to  the  formu- 
lation of  a  set  of  practical  rules  that  will  carry  a 
housewife  through  the  ordinary  household  round 
without  discredit,  but  the  question  which  we  have 
to  put  to  ourselves  is  whether,  by  organising  and 
directing  the  experience,  success  may  not  be  made 
certain  and  more  instructive.  In  these  days 
domestic  life  is  more  complicated  than  it  used  to 
be ;  at  the  same  time  experience  is  in  a  sense  more 
restricted.  Many  of  the  instructive  processes, 
practical  experience  in  which  conveyed  valuable 
if  unconscious  scientific  training,  are  now  con- 
ducted on  a  large  scale,  and  are  outside  the  range 
of  domestic  duties,  and  the  housewife  has  to  supply, 
by  special  training  in  scientific  principles,  the 
judgment  that  in  days  gone  by  was  acquired  as  a 
matter  of  habit. 

It    is    impossible     in    the    short    space    of    a 


8o        HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

single  article  to  set  out  the  details  of  a  systematic 
course  of  training  sufficient  to  fit  the  housewife  to 
use  her  judgment  wisely  in  circumstances  which 
require  a  knowledge  of  the  principles  of  the 
fundamental  physical  sciences.  The  most  that  we 
can  attempt  is  to  give  a  few  examples  which  illus- 
trate the  application  of  the  principles  of  physics 
and  chemistry.  Our  purpose  in  doing  so  is  to 
suggest  illustrations  which  appeal  to  every  house- 
holder, and  may  create  a  desire  for  fuller  know- 
ledge rather  than  to  supply  a  course  of  instruction. 
What  we  aim  at  is  not  to  provide  the  equipment 
of  scientific  training,  but  to  show  that  the  scientific 
habit  of  mind  will  find  opportunities  for  useful 
employment  in  many  of  the  most  ordinary  affairs 
of  life.  The  problems  that  present  themselves 
in  the  course  of  experience  are  sometimes  diffi- 
cult and  intricate ;  patience  and  careful  observa- 
tion as  well  as  knowledge  are  required  for  their 
solution.  Sometimes  this  solution  is  beyond  the 
immediate  resources  of  those  concerned,  and  it  is 
a  part  of  scientific  training  to  recognise  when  this 
is  the  case,  so  that  effort  and  money  may  not  be 
wasted  in  endeavours  which  are  foredoomed  to 
failure.  We  may  cite  a  case  in  point  where  an  extra 
bell  was  desired  in  a  system  of  electric  bells  in  a 
flat  at  a  time  when  electric  installations  in  private 
houses  were  somewhat  rare,  and  workmen  with 
any  knowledge  beyond  that  necessary  for  carrying 
out  instructions  were  not  easily  found.  To  the 
confusion  of  the  tenant,  the  introduction  of  this 
extra  bell  caused  all  the  bells  in  the  flat  to  strike 


SCIENCE    IN    THE    HOUSEHOLD       81 

work.  A  mathematical  lecturer  living  in  the  same 
building  was  consulted,  and  opined  that  the  battery 
of  two  somewhat  small -looking  cells  was  insuffi- 
cient, so  he  obtained  and  added  a  larger  cell,  but 
the  bells  were  obdurate  and  did  not  resume  work. 
A  lady  with  knowledge  of  physics  examined  the 
installations  and  discovered  that  the  wire  connec- 
tions as  altered  were  entirely  wrong  and  did  not 
connect  the  bells  to  the  battery.  A  plan  of  the 
correct  connections  was  shown  to  the  workman, 
who  a  few  days  later  reported  that  now  all  the 
bells  rang  at  once,  and  he  had  had  to  disconnect 
the  battery  !  He  produced  a  sketch  of  the  con- 
nections he  had  made,  and  on  his  error  being 
pointed  out  he  was  able  to  rectify  it,  and  the  bells 
answered  to  touch  without  the  use  of  the  extra 
cell.  Generally  speaking,  a  failure  on  the  part  of 
electric  bells  is  corrected  by  filling  up  the  cells 
which  compose  the  battery  with  water,  an  opera- 
tion which  any  one  may  undertake. 

It  is  not  safe,  however,  for  an  inexperienced 
person  to  interfere  with  electric  light  fittings 
further  than  to  remove  a  worn-out  lamp  and  place 
a  new  one  in  the  socket,  and  even  this  operation 
may  be  attended  with  disaster.  A  youn£  friend 
of  ours  who  was  taking  part  in  some  private 
theatricals  obtained  the  loan  of  a  row  of  electric 
footlights.  It  did  not  occur  to  any  one  concerned 
to  ask  the  voltage  of  the  lamps :  or  of  the  current 
to  which  they  were  to  be  applied.  When  the 
footlights  were  turned  up  they  blazed  for  a  brief 
period,  and  then  every  light  in  the  house  went 


82        HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

out !  Electrical  science  for  the  housewife  has 
been  resolved  into  a  knowledge  of  electric  terms 
and  of  a  few  practical  rules  useful  and  interesting 
in  themselves,  but  not  immediately  suitable  for 
our  purpose  of  showing  how  scientific  study  may 
aid  the  housewife  in  her  daily  njutine. 

PHYSICAL   SCIENCE   IN   THE  HOUSEHOLD 

We  may  for  this  purpose  examine  some  of 
the  laws  of  common  physical  and  chemical  phe- 
nomena, neglect  of  which  has  resulted  in  much 
needless  discomfort  in  daily  life,  and  even  more 
serious  consequences.  For  instance,  the  laws  of 
expansion  of  gases  and  liquids  with  heat,  and  their 
subsequent  behaviour,  are  phenomena  that  are 
often  imperfectly  realised.  There  is  probably  no 
person  who  is  unacquainted  with  the  law  of  gravi- 
tation, but  there  are  many  persons  who  accept 
literally  the  statements  that  smoke  rises  and  that 
balloons  ascend.  A  clear  understanding  of  what 
actually  takes  place  when  gases  and  material 
masses  appear  to  move  in  opposition  to  the  law 
of  gravitation  is  essential  to  any  scheme  for  war 
ing  and  ventilating  the  house. 

A  very  simple  experiment  will  serve  to  reconci 
the  apparent  contradiction  of  the  universal  law  by 
the  observed  fact.  Suppose  we  have  two  fluids, 
oil  and  water,  of  which  oil  is,  bulk  for  bulk,  lighter 
than  water.  If  the  oil  be  poured  into  a  glass 
beaker,  it  will  be  seen  to  rest  at  the  bottom  of  the 
beaker  ;  if  water  be  now  poured  into  the  same 


: 

:ile 


SCIENCE    IN    THE    HOUSEHOLD       83 

beaker  the  water  will  go  to  the  bottom  of  the 
beaker  and  will  displace  the  oil  and  lift  it  up  so 
that  the  oil  will  float  on  the  water  ;  the  oil  may 
be  lifted  to  any  height  we  please  if  sufficient  water 
be  poured  in  to  lift  it  to  that  height.  If  a  single 
drop  of  oil  be  introduced  into  the  water  by  means 
of  a  pipette  and  be  liberated  at  the  bottom  of  the 
beaker  the  water  will  close  in  under  it,  and  lift 
it  up  to  the  surface.  In  both  cases  the  oil (t  rises  " 
through  the  water.  Oil,  however,  has  no  tendency 
to  "  rise  "  by  itself,  and  in  this  case  it  lay  motion- 
less until  it  was  lifted  by  the  heavier  fluid.  We 
may  use  colloquial  language  when  describing 
phenomena  if  we  bear  in  mind  what  is  really 
taking  place. 

A  balloon  "  rising "  through  the  air  is  exactly 
analogous  to  the  drop  of  oil  in  the  water.  The 
balloon  is,  bulk  for  bulk,  lighter  than  air  ;  the  air 
therefore  closes  in  under  it  and  lifts  it  just  as  the 
water  lifted  the  bubble  of  oil. 


EFFECTS  OF  CHANGES  OF  TEMPERATURE 
ON  AIR 


Let  us  apply  this  to  air.  Air  when  warmed 
expands,  and  therefore  warm  air  is,  bulk  for  bulk, 
lighter  than  cold  air.  Warm  air  behaves  in  the 
presence  of  cold  air  as  the  balloon  :  it  is  displaced 
and  lifted  by  the  cold  air,  the  result  being  an 
ascending  stream  of  warm  air,  which  is  called  a 
convection  current. 

The  movement  of  ascending  smoke  is  essentially 


84       HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

the  same  as  that  of  the  warmed  air.  Smoke 
is  warm  air  made  visible  by  the  particles  of  soot 
with  which  it  is  laden.  The  particles  of  soot 
would  fall  to  the  ground  except  that  they  are 
carried  upwards  in  the  stream  of  warm  air 
Dr.  W.  N.  Shaw  has  called  attention  to  the  im- 
portance of  these  phenomena  in  his  book  on  "Air 
Currents  and  the  Laws  of  Ventilation,"  in  the 
Cambridge  Series  of  Physical  Text-books.  He 
there  says  :  "  The  dominant  physical  law  in  the 
ventilated  space  is  the  law  of  convection.  It  is 
at  once  the  condition  of  success  and  the  cause  of 
most  failures.  Without  convection,  ventilation 
would  be  impossible  ;  in  consequence  of  convec- 
tion, nearly  all  schemes  of  ventilation  fail. 

"  The  law  of  convection  is  the  law  according  to 
which  warmed  air  rises  and  cooled  air  sinks  in 
the  surrounding  air.  Its  applications  are  truly 
ubiquitous.  Every  surface,  e.g.  a  warm  wall,  or 
a  person  warmer  than  the  air  in  the  immediate 
neighbourhood,  causes  an  upward  current ;  every 
surface  colder  than  the  air  in  contact  with  il 
causes  a  downward  current. 

"  Ventilation  would  be  much  easier  if  warmed  air 
or  cooled  air  could  be  carried  along  at  any  height 
required  ;  but  the  law  of  convection  is  inexorable  : 
warmed  air  naturally  finds  the  ceiling,  cooled  aii 
the  floor." 

It  is  true  that  the  ventilation  of  a  house 
generally  considered  to  be  the  business  of  the 
builder  and  architect,  yet  there  are  many  un- 
pleasant phenomena  that  come  under  the  observa 


SCIENCE    IN    THE    HOUSEHOLD       85 

tion  of  the  housewife  which  are  due  to  this  law 
of  convection,  and  it  will  be  useful  to  consider  a 
few  of  them. 

Let  us  take  first  the  universal  annoyance  to 
housewives  caused  by  the  sight  of  dirt  on  the  ceiling. 
That  all  air  is  full  of  dust  is  seen  when  a  stream 
of  sunlight  crosses  a  room  ;  the  particles  of  dust 
are  then  clearly  perceived  moving  rapidly  in  all 
directions  in  the  air.  These  dust  particles,  when 
air  is  at  rest,  constantly  fall  to  the  ground  under 
the  action  of  gravity,  and  are  deposited  on  shelves 
and  ledges,  from  which  they  have  to  be  removed 
daily  by  the  housemaid.  When  air  is  warmed 
and  ascends  it  carries  the  dust  particles  with  it, 
and  these  particles  striking  against  any  cold  surface 
with  which  they  come  into  contact  stick  to  it. 
This  is  the  cause  of  the  necessity  for  the  periodical 
sweeping  of  chimneys.  The  walls  of  the  chimney 
are  colder  than  the  smoke  that  comes  into  contact 
with  them,  and  the  particles  of  soot  in  the  smoke 
striking  against  them  are  deposited  on  them.  In 
the  house  the  effect  of  the  bombardment  of  sur- 
faces by  dust-laden  streams  of  air  is  seen  most  con- 
spicuously over  burning  gas-lights.  Burning  gas 
does  not  itself  produce  all  the  dirt  which  is  found 
on  the  ceiling  above  it,  but  it  causes  upward  streams 
of  hot  air,  which  carry  up  the  dust  and  deposit  it 
on  the  ceiling.  The  practice  of  suspending  a  shade 
over  the  gas-light  does  not  lessen  the  amount  of 
dust  and  smoke  in  the  air,  but  the  shade  serves  to 
spread  out  the  air  over  a  larger  surface,  and  thus 
to  render  the  dirt  on  the  ceiling  less  apparent. 


86       HOUSEHOLD   ADMINISTRATION 

That  the  shade  itself  remains  clean  is  due  to  the 
fact  that  it  gets  hot.  A  heated  surface  promotes 
the  activity  of  the  motion  of  the  air-particles  in  its 
neighbourhood,  and  by  this  local  activity  the  dust 
is  repelled,  so  that  a  surface  remains  clean  or 
becomes  coated  according  as  it  is  more  or  less 
hot  than  the  invading  current.  The  validity  of 
this  explanation  may  be  tested  by  holding  a  cold 
spoon  over  a  lighted  candle  when  it  will  be  seen 
that  the  spoon  becomes  blackened ;  if  a  hot 
spoon  be  substituted  for  the  cold  one  it  wil 
remain  clean. 

In  order  that  the  hot,  vitiated  air  of  a  rooi 
may  escape  easily,  it  has  been  in  many  cases  the 
custom  to  place  an  exit  opening  for  it  in  the 
chimney  over  the  room  fireplace.  The  wall  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  this  ventilator  invariably 
becomes  black ;  but  as  this  wall  is  warm  it  is  not 
probable  that  dust  is  deposited  on  it  by  the  out- 
going air,  the  explanation  given  by  the  housewife 
that  the  smoke  from  the  chimney  gets  through 
the  ventilator  into  the  room  is  probably  correct, 
though  these  ventilators  are  supplied  with  mica 
flaps  which  should  swing  open  when  air  from  the 
room  strikes  against  them,  and  close  when  the 
air  from  the  chimney  does  so. 

When  a  house  is  heated  by  hot-water  pipes 
and  radiators,  the  walls  over  these  pipes  are  anothei 
source  of  trouble  (Fig.  i).  A  good  deal 
scientific  ingenuity  is  required  if  the  walls  are 
to  be  kept  clean. 

That  some  ceilings  appear  striped  with  broaci 


SCIENCE    IN    THE    HOUSEHOLD       87 

light  and  dark  lines  is  due  to  inequalities  in  the 
temperature  of  the  ceiling.  The  light  stripes  are 
under  the  joists,  which  prevent  to  some  extent 


1 


FIG.  i. 


the  escape  of  heat  from  the  ceiling,  and  the  dark 
correspond  to  the  unprotected  parts  of  the  ceiling. 
The  dust  rising  from  the  room  is  slightly  repelled 


88        HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

by  the  currents  from  the  warmer  parts  of  the 
ceiling,  and  sticks  more  readily  to  the  colder  parts 
Let  us  take  for  our  second  example  the  ap- 
parently trivial  matter  of  smells  in  the  house. 
Smells  may  be  of  various  kinds  from  various 
causes.  The  best  judge  of  the  kind,  and  therefore 
of  the  cause,  is  the  nose.  Suppose  the  smell  to 
be  the  common  one  in  houses  of  all  classes — the 
smell  of  cookery !  The  smell  of  cookery  in  the 
house  is  generally  a  winter  phenomenon.  The 
air  in  an  inhabited  house  is  always  in  a  state  of 
motion,  induced  by  the  inequalities  of  temperature 
caused  by  the  inhabitants  themselves,  and  to  a 
greater  extent  by  the  fires,  of  which  there  will 
certainly  be  one  in  the  kitchen.  We  must  re- 
member that  cold  air  will  get  into  the  house 
through  all  available  openings,  to  take  the  place  of 
the  air  which  supplies  the  fires.  The  most  obvious 
available  openings  in  an  ordinary  dwelling-house 
are  the  casual  ones  of  the  open  chimneys  of  un- 
used grates,  and  the  loosely  fitting  doors  and 
windows.  In  cold  weather  fires  are  lighted  in 
the  sitting-room  grates  ;  these  fires  when  lighted 
should  warm  the  air  in  the  chimneys  above  them 
and  cause  an  upward  draught  in  the  chimney. 
Sometimes  however  the  chimney  will  be  found 
to  be  occupied  by  a  current  of  air  coming  down 
to  feed  fires  in  other  rooms,  and  so  long  as  this 
goes  on  the  smoke  from  the  newly  lighted  fire 
comes  into  the  room.  The  down-draught  can 
be  stopped  by  opening  a  window  to  supply 
sufficient  cold  air  to  counteract  it,  otherwise  we 


SCIENCE    IN    THE    HOUSEHOLD      89 

have  to  adopt  special  devices  to  make  the  smoke 
go  up  the  chimney  in  the  first  instance.  Some- 
times a  newspaper  is  burnt  in  the  grate  to  give 
the  necessary  amount  of  warm  air,  but  this  is  a 
dangerous  practice  by  which  the  chimney  may  be 
set  on  fire.  Sometimes  air  is  supplied  by  the 
bellows.  A  newspaper  is  often  held  in  front  of 
the  grate  so  as  to  close  the  opening  above  the 
fire  and  cause  the  cold  air  to  pass  through  the 
fire,  thus  promoting  combustion  and  the  supply  of 
hot  air  in  the  chimney.  In  any  case,  the  warm 
air  of  the  fire  is  carried  up  the  chimney  by  the 
cold  air  of  the  room,  and  this  cold  air  is  drawn 
from  the  casual  openings  already  referred  to.  It 
has  been  demonstrated  by  laboratory  experiments 
that  the  amount  of  draught  in  any  chimney  de- 
pends on  the  height  of  the  chimney  and  the  fire 
in  its  grate. 

Smells  are  conveyed  about  a  house  by  the  flow 
of  air  to  feed  the  fires,  and  they  nearly  always  find 
their  way  from  all  parts  of  the  house  to  the  ground- 
floor  sitting-rooms  when  the  doors  are  left  open 
and  the  fires  are  burning.  On  their  way  they 
pass  through  passages  and  are  therefore  nearly 
ubiquitous.  The  air  of  any  room  in  the  house  is  in 
communication  with  that  of  every  other  room,  and 
it  is  only  by  the  nature  of  the  smell  that  we  can 
tell  its  probable  source.  There  are  people  who 
like  when  they  open  the  bedroom  door  in  the 
morning  to  know  that  coffee  and  bacon  await 
them  downstairs,  or  on  coming  into  the  house 
from  a  cold  winter's  walk  to  meet  a  "  delicious 


90        HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

smell  of  Irish  stew."  To  other  people  all  smell  of 
cookery  is  abhorrent,  and  they  feel  a  sense  of 
irritation  that  their  guests  should  on  entering  the 
house  be  regaled  with  the  odour  of  the  prepara- 
tion of  food.  To  many  mistresses  the  only  remedy 
that  suggests  itself  is  a  message  to  the  cook,  who 
is  powerless  in  the  matter  and  returns  an  answer 
that  she  is  sorry,  but  that  she  doesn't  know  why 
there  should  be  a  smell  of  cooking  upstairs  as 
there  is  none  in  the  kitchen.  A  visit  to  the  kitchen 
will  generally  confirm  the  cook's  statement  as  to 
that  particular  spot,  but  a  considerable  smell  will 
be  encountered  on  the  kitchen  stairs.  We  may 
inquire  into  the  cause  of  this.  The  usual  equip- 
ment of  the  kitchen  includes  a  closed  range,  supple- 
mented in  many  cases  by  a  gas  stove.  The  kitchen 
fire  draws  a  plentiful  supply  of  air  from  casual 
openings,  and  this  air  for  the  most  part  passes 
with  the  smoke  up  such  flues  as  are  open.  The 
oven  is  provided  with  a  ventilator,  which  carries 
off  the  odour  of  baked  or  roasted  meats.  The 
odour  in  the  hot  air  over  the  closed  range  has  no 
escape  except  into  the  kitchen — the  cook  says 
that  ever  so  slight  an  opening  in  the  top  of  the 
range  will  prevent  the  oven  from  heating.  This 
odour-laden  air  therefore  comes  directly  into  the 
kitchen,  and  being  hot  is  directed  to  the  ceiling, 
thus  escaping  the  cook  who  is  in  the  draught  of 
the  fresh  air  supply.  Travelling  along  the  ceiling 
the  hot  air  passes  through  the  opening  at  the  top 
of  the  door  and  mingles  with  the  fresh  air  on  its 
way  upstairs.  The  same  thing  happens  when  the 


SCIENCE    IN    THE    HOUSEHOLD      91 

gas  stove  is  in  use.  The  only  remedy  is  to  pro- 
vide some  exit  for  the  hot  air  of  the  kitchen  which 
will  be  more  easily  accessible  than  that  by  way  of 
the  door,  for  the  hot  air  will  travel  by  the  easiest 
path.  A  considerable  knowledge  of  science  is 
required  to  achieve  this  object. 

Closely  allievd  with  the  smell  of  cookery  is  the 
smell  of  the  gas  stove.  Many  persons  consider  that 
the  use  of  a  gas  stove  either  in  the  kitchen  or  in 
a  bedroom  is  inseparable  from  the  peculiar  odour 
of  partially  consumed  gas.  It  may  therefore  be 
useful  to  consider  how  the  gas  supplied  to  stoves 
and  incandescent  lights  differs  from  that  of  an 
open  gas  fire  or  that  of  an  ordinary  burner.  Gas 
stoves  and  incandescent  lights  get  their  supply  of 
gas  through  what  are  known  as  Bunsen  burners, 
so  called  after  the  German  chemist  whose  inven- 
tion they  are.  In  an  ordinary  burner  the  gas 
mixes  with  atmospheric  air  at  the  opening  at  which 
it  burns ;  the  supply  of  air  obtained  in  this  way 
is  insufficient  for  complete  combustion  until  the 
outer  layers  are  reached  ;  the  interior  part  of  the 
flame  is  bright  and  smoky.  In  the  Bunsen  burner 
the  gas  issues  from  the  main  through  a  nozzle 
which  opens  inside  a  bulb.  The  bulb  is  perforated 
to  allow  of  the  ingress  of  atmospheric  air  ;  the  gas 
and  air  mix  in  the  tube  which  is  a  prolongation 
of  the  bulb,  and  the  mixture  is  lighted  at  the  top 
of  the  tube.  Fig.  2  shows  a  representation  of  the 
Bunsen  burner  as  applied  to  a  gas  stove.  In  this 
the  gas  escapes  from  the  main  at  the  nozzle  n, 
into  a  bulb  of  which  the  tube  A  is  a  prolonga- 


92       HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

tion,  air  is  admitted  to  the  bulb  at  the  openings 
a  a,  and  the  mixed  gas  and  air  is  burnt  at  the 
openings  in  the  tube  A.  The  amount  of  air 
supplied  is  regulated  by  the  size  of  the  openings 
a  a  and  the  holes  where  the  gas  is  lighted.  The 
gas  thus  supplied  with  air  is  completely  consumed 
where  combustion  begins,  and  a  clear,  blue,  non- 
luminous  flame  is  the  result.  If  the  holes  through 
which  the  mixture  of  gas  and  air  issues  are  partially 
closed  by  rust  or  by  accretions  from  the  "  boiling 


air 


FIG.  2. 

over "  of  saucepans  it  is  evident  that,  the  gas 
supply  being  unchanged,  less  air  can  be  drawn 
through  them  ;  consequently  the  gas  will  not  be 
entirely  consumed,  and  acetylene  (C2H2,  one  of 
the  products  of  partially  consumed  coal  gas)  will 
pass  into  the  atmosphere  and  will  give  rise  to  the 
peculiar  odour  associated  with  gas  stoves.  This 
product  of  partially  consumed  gas  is  very  poisonous, 
and  all  gas  stoves  should  be  furnished  with  chim- 
neys to  carry  off  the  fumes  to  the  open  air.  The 
phenomenon  known  as  "  burning  back,"  that  is, 
the  ignition  of  the  gas  at  the  nozzle  in  the  bulb, 
is  caused  by  the  pressure  of  gas  being  too  small 
for  the  supply  of  air.  The  gas  should  at  once  be 


SCIENCE    IN    THE    HOUSEHOLD      93 

turned  out  and  relighted  till  it  burns  at  the  proper 
places.  The  simple  remedy  for  smell  from  a  gas 
stove  is  the  cleansing  of  its  burners,  unless  indeed 
the  kettle  is  too  close  to  the  holes  from  which  the 
gas  issues  for  complete  combustion  to  be  possible. 

There  is  another  winter  phenomenon  which  is 
very  disagreeable — the  presence  of  fog  in  the  house; 
and  the  perplexed  housewife  asks,  Where  does  the 
fog  get  in  when  all  outside  doors  and  windows 
are  closed  ?  We  have  already  pointed  out  that 
the  sitting-room  fires  must  have  air,  and  that  that 
air  will  be  drawn  from  casual  openings.  Among 
these  openings  are  the  chimneys  of  fireless  grates ; 
the  greater  part  of  the  fog  in  the  house  comes 
down  these  chimneys.  On  a  foggy  day  it  is  wise 
to  close  the  chimneys  of  fireless  grates  and  pro- 
vide some  other  opening  for  the  supply  of  air  ; 
but  all  air  from  the  outside  is  full  of  fog.  The 
problem  of  how  to  let  in  air  and  keep  out  fog 
suggests  the  question,  What  is  fog  ?  Fog  consists 
of  material  particles  (dust  or  smoke)  on  which 
vapour  has  condensed  ;  if  these  particles  can  be 
removed  the  air  will  be  clear.  The  problem  for 
the  housewife  is  how  to  free  a  sufficient  quantity 
of  air  from  these  particles. 

A  smell  of  gas  in  any  part  of  the  house  may  be 
very  dangerous  if  no  one  on  the  premises  has  any 
scientific  knowledge,  for  it  may  be  premised  that 
the  escape  of  gas  is  not  where  the  smell  is  first 
perceived.  Gas  being  lighter  than  air  is  carried 
upwards,  and  the  smell  is  at  first  above  the  place 
of  escape ;  it  may  even  be  in  a  room  over  where 


94       HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

the  gas  is  escaping.  The  only  safe  detector  of 
the  source  of  mischief  is  the  nose ;  the  mixture  of 
coal  gas  and  atmospheric  air  is  explosive,  and  no 
light  must  be  struck.  The  upper  sash  of  the 
window  should  be  pulled  down  to  allow  the  gas 
to  escape,  and  if  the  accident  is  at  night  time 
must  be  allowed  before  searching  for  the  source 
of  escape  further  than  can  be  done  by  feeling  the 
taps  in  the  dark  or  following  the  scent  by  the  nose. 
Further  illustration  of  the  effect  of  convection 
currents  in  the  air  of  a  dwelling-house  are  need- 
less, but  the  student  may  profitably  spend  time 
and  thought  in  considering  how  fresh  air  may  be 
introduced  into  a* room  without  causing  cold  air 
to  lie  on  the  floor  or  hot,  vitiated  air  to  cling  to 
the  ceiling.  It  is  the  old  problem  (with  a  differ- 
ence) of  teaching  a  grandmother  to  suck  an  egg. 
He  may  also  interest  himself  in  seeking  answers 
to  the  questions  (i)  What  action  is  expected  to 
take  place  when  a  poker  is  placed  against  the  bars 
of  a  grate  to  make  the  fire  draw  ?  and  (2)  Does 
the  sun  put  the  fire  out,  and  if  so  how  ?  In 
connection  with  the  expansion  of  air  with  heat  he 
may  consider  the  popular  fallacy  that  an  inverted 
empty  pot  in  a  pie  keeps  in  the  juice. 

EFFECT  OF  CHANGES  OF  TEMPERATURE 
ON  WATER 

Accidents  have  occurred  in  houses  owing  to 
ignorance  of  the  full  effects  of  heating  or  cooling 
water  from  its  ordinary  temperature.  Water  at 


SCIENCE    IN    THE    HOUSEHOLD       95 

any  ordinary  temperature  expands  when  subjected 
to  the  action  of  heat  ;  it  contracts  on  cooling  till 
it  reaches  a  temperature  seven  degrees  above  the 
freezing  point ;  from  this  temperature  it  expands 
until  it  becomes  a  solid  mass  of  ice.  At  still 
lower  temperatures  ice  contracts. 

Let  us  consider  first  the  effect  of  heating  water. 
If  water  at  the  ordinary  temperature  be  poured 
into  a  vessel  which  is  placed  on  a  fire  or  other 
source  of  heat  the  water  at  the  bottom  of  the 
vessel  will  be  warmed  and  will  expand  ;  it  will 
therefore  be  lighter,  bulk  for  bulk,  than  the  water 
nearer  the  top  of  the  vessel.  The  cold  water  will 
therefore  descend,  and  the  warm  water  will 
rise.  All  ordinary  water  contains  air ;  presently 
the  air  in  the  water  will  become  visible  as  small 
bubbles  which  rise  to  the  surface  of  the  water  and 
escape  noiselessly  into  the  atmosphere.  As  more 
heat  is  applied  some  of  the  water  in  the  bottom 
of  the  vessel  will  be  formed  into  steam,  and 
bubbles  of  steam  will  expand  and  rise  into  the 
cooler  water  above  and  collapse  there  with  a 
rattling  noise  which  is  characteristic  of  the  state 
known  as  simmering.  These  bubbles  of  steam 
rising  and  bursting  aid  the  convection  currents  in 
stirring  and  mixing  the  water  so  that  it  presently 
becomes  of  even  temperature  throughout.  When 
this  occurs  the  bubbles  of  steam  rise  to  the 
surface  and  burst  explosively  into  the  atmosphere, 
throwing  the  water  violently  about  ;  the  water  is 
then  boiling.  It  is  an  important  point  to  re- 
member in  cookery  that  boiling  water  will  not 


96       HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

become  any  hotter  with  the  application  of  more 
heat,  but  it  will  "  boil  away ; "  that  is,  it  will  be 
completely  converted  into  steam.  The  steam 
resulting  from  any  volume  of  water  occupies  a 
space  1700  times  that  of  the  water  from  which 
it  is  produced,  but  what  concerns  the  housewife 
most  seriously  is  that  the  change  of  water  into 
steam  is  accompanied  with  the  evolution  of  tremen- 
dous mechanical  force  that  will  burst  any  vessel 
in  which  the  water  is  enclosed.  It  is  the  fact  of 
this  tremendous  exercise  of  mechanical  force  that 
has  led  to  serious  accidents  when  hot-water 
bottles  have  been  put  into  the  oven  to  keep  warm. 
It  has  been  assumed  by  some  people  that  if  the 
hot-water  bottle  be  not  completely  filled,  that  if 
what  they  consider  to  be  sufficient  room  is  left  for 
the  expansion  of  the  water,  no  harm  can  result 
from  putting  the  bottle  into  the  oven,  but  no 
arrangement  can  make  such  a  course  safe. 

The  bursting  of  the  kitchen  boiler  is  an  acci- 
dent resulting  from  disregard  of  the  phenomena 
of  heated  water.  It  sometimes  happens  that  the 
hot-water  supply  of  the  various  taps  in  the  house 
fails.  If  the  boiler  supplying  the  water  is  a  hand- 
fed  one  some  one  whose  duty  it  was  to  fill  it  has 
neglected  that  duty.  An  empty  boiler  with  a 
removable  lid  will  do  no  harm,  but  it  is  not  advis- 
able to  leave  it  empty,  as  the  heat  of  the  fire  will 
destroy  the  iron  of  which  it  is  made.  No  attempt, 
however,  should  be  made  to  fill  the  boiler  while 
it  is  hot,  as  the  result  of  pouring  cold  water  into 
it  will  be  the  sudden  and  violent  conversion  of  the 


SCIENCE    IN    THE    HOUSEHOLD       97 

water  into  steam,  and  the  person  pouring  in  the 
water  will  assuredly  be  scalded.  If  the  boiler 
be  one  that  is  filled  automatically,  one  of  two 
things  has  probably  occurred  :  either  the  pipes  are 
blocked  by  fur — that  is  to  say  by  sediment  from 
the  boiled  water — or  the  supply-pipe  is  frozen. 
In  neither  case  is  it  safe  to  light  the  fire.  If  the 
pipes  are  blocked  by  fur  steam  will  be  formed 
in  the  boiler  and  it  will  burst  ;  if  the  supply-pipe 
is  frozen  the  heat  may  thaw  the  ice,  and  the 
inrush  of  cold  water  will  at  any  rate  crack  the 
boiler. 

When  water  expands  with  heating  convection 
currents  are  formed  in  it,  and  the  hot  water  rises 
to  any  height  we  please  if  cold  water  be  available 
to  take  its  place.  This  law  of  convection  is  applied 
to  maintain  a  circulation  of  hot  water  in  pipes 
used  for  warming  a  house.  The  general  arrange- 
ment of  such  a  system  is  shown  in  Fig.  3.  The 
furnace  heats  a  boiler  in  the  basement  or  on 
the  lowest  storey  of  the  house;  HB  and  HL'  are 
parallel  vertical  pipes  connected  with  a  horizontal 
pipe  H'H  at  the  top  of  the  house  ;  C  is  a  small 
cold-water  cistern  which  is  furnished  with  a  ball- 
tap  to  maintain  the  supply  of  cold  water  to  the 
pipe  H'L  if  any  water  is  drawn  off  at  any  part  of 
the  circuit.  The  short  pipe  A  acts  as  a  valve  for 
the  escape  of  air  from  the  pipes.  The  pipes  H'L, 
H'H,  and  HB  are  filled  with  water.  When  the 
fire  is  lighted  in  the  furnace,  hot  water  is  driven  up 
the  pipe  HB  by  cold  water  descending  through 
H'L,  and  this  circulation  goes  on  so  long  as  a 


98       HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

difference  of  temperature  is  maintained  in  the 
pipes  ;  that  is,  so  long  as  the  fire  is  burning.  Any 
number  of  coils  of  pipes  may  be  introduced  into 
the  circuit  between  the  boiler  and  the  top  of  the 
pipe  HB.  In  filling  the  pipes  with  water  allow- 


Fir,  3. 

ance  is  made  in  these  coils  for  the  expansion  of 
the  water  with  heat  and  for  the  air  which  we  have 
seen  escapes  from  heated  water,  and  a  tap  is 
fixed  in  each  coil  for  letting  out  any  air  that  may 
have  lodged  in  it.  If  free  air  remains  in  the  pipes 
the  circulation  of  the  water  will  be  hindered  and 
the  boiler  may  become  dangerously  overheated, 


SCIENCE    IN    THE    HOUSEHOLD       99 

It  is  therefore  necessary  when  the  heating  ap- 
paratus is  in  use  to  examine  these  taps  and  see 
that  water  and  not  air  escapes  from  them. 

The  installation  of  a  heating  apparatus  in 
middle-class  houses  is  fairly  common,  and  where 
one  is  not  found  many  persons  use  gas  or  oil 
stoves  in  the  passages  in  the  winter,  for  it  is  now 
realised  that  it  is  not  possible  to  heat  rooms  by 
means  of  open  fires  without  creating  cold  draughts 
in  them  from  the  cold  passages  into  which  they 
open.  And,  moreover,  the  constant  change  of 
temperature  encountered  in  passing  from  one  warm 
room  to  another  through  cold  passages  is  not 
only  disagreeable,  but  is  not  found  to  be  conducive 
to  health. 

Let  us  turn  to  the  cooling  of  water.  Water 
expands  about  one-eleventh  of  its  volume  on 
becoming  ice.  This  change  of  state,  like  that  of 
change  into  steam,  is  accompanied  by  the  evolu- 
tion of  tremendous  mechanical  force.  If  water 
freezes  in  pipes  it  bursts  the  pipes,  and  on  a  thaw 
taking  place  the  pipes  are  found  to  leak.  The 
appropriate  remedy  for  this  state  of  things  is  to 
protect  the  pipes  from  cold  or  to  empty  them 
when  a  frost  is  apprehended.  In  all  properly 
built  houses  there  is  a  tap  by  means  of  which  the 
water  supply  can  be  cut  off  from  the  house,  thus 
allowing  the  pipes  to  be  emptied  on  a  frosty  night. 
The  custom  of  leaving  the  taps  dripping  is  effec- 
tive, because  the  pipe  is  generally  liable  to  freeze 
at  some  particular  point  where  it  is  in  immediate 
contact  with  the  cold  air,  probably  in  the  unclosed 


ioo      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

chink  where  the  pipe  passes  through  the  wall ; 
keeping  the  water  moving  in  the  pipe  prevents  any 
part  of  it  getting  cold  enough  to  freeze,  but  the 
practice  should  not  be  resorted  to,  as  it  wastes 
water. 

RADIANT   HEAT 

It  is  pleasant  on  a  dry,  still  day  in  winter,  when 
the  ground  is  covered  with  crisp  snow  or  glistens 
with  hard  frost,  to  feel  the  warmth  of  the  sun's 
rays,  and  it  is  becoming  quite  a  fashion  for  people 
of  leisure  to  spend  the  winter  months  at  the 
pleasure  resorts  amid  the  snow-laden  mountains 
of  Switzerland.  It  is  a  matter  of  some  interest  to 
inquire  how  it  happens  that  the  sun's  rays  are 
warm  when  the  thermometer  tells  us  that  the 
temperature  of  the  air  is  below  freezing-point. 
There  is  an  old  and  pretty  experiment  in  which  a 
burning  glass  is  made  of  ice  ;  it  is  not  a  difficult 
thing  to  do.  If  the  scale-pan  of  an  ordinary 
balance  be  made  hot  and  be  pressed 
against  a  slice  of  ice  (the  concave 
side  of  the  scale-pan  towards  the 
ice),  first  on  one  side  of  the  slice 
and  then  on  the  other,  the  ice  can  be 
formed  into  a  convex  lens  (Fig.  4). 
If  now  this  lens  be  placed  in  the 
path  of  a  sunbeam  and  the  light 
be  brought  to  a  focus,  that  is,  to  a 
bright  spot  on  a  piece  of  paper, 
the  paper  will  be  heated  and  will  take  fire  while 
the  lens  through  which  the  heat  passes  remains 


SCIENCE    IN    THE    HOUSEHOLD      101 

ice.  From  this  we  may  surmise  that  the  heat 
of  the  sun  does  not  affect  the  medium  through 
which  it  passes. 

Clerk  Maxwell  suggested  yet  another  experiment 
in  illustration  of  this  law.  By  means  of  an  ice 
lens  he  collected  the  sunlight  to  a  focus  in  the 
middle  of  a  basin  of  clear  water,  and  observed 
that  no  effect  was  discernible  in  the  water.  He 
then  directed  the  focus  (the  spot  of  light)  on  to 
a  mote  in  the  water.  The  mote  became  hot,  the 
water  was  agitated,  convection  currents  were 
formed,  and  the  mote  was  carried  up  in  them. 
This  showed  that  rays  of  light  from  the  sun  do 
not  affect  the  substances  through  which  they  can 
pass,  and  that  they  heat  bodies  through  which 
they  do  not  pass.  It  has  been  demonstrated  by 
laboratory  experiments  that  all  hot  bodies  emit 
rays  of  heat,  whether  we  see  the  rays  or  not. 
When  we  see  the  rays  the  bodies  are  said  to  be 
red  or  white-hot.  The  process  by  which  heat 
passes  from  one  body  to  another  without  warming 
the  intervening  medium  is  called  radiation.  Radia- 
tion takes  place  only  through  transparent  bodies. 
Rays  of  heat,  like  rays  of  light,  pass  through  trans- 
parent bodies  ;  whereas  they  are  absorbed  by,  that 
is  they  make  hot,  opaque  bodies.  Heat  rays  travel 
in  straight  lines  and  are  reflected  from  polished 
surfaces  ;  their  intensity  varies  inversely  as  the 
square  of  the  distance  of  the  object  on  which  they 
fall  from  their  source.  The  heat  of  an  ordinary 
fire  is  radiant  heat ;  when  we  sit  round  the  fire  we 
act  as  opaque  bodies  and  absorb  the  heat,  and 


102      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

are  what  we  call  scorched  if  the  fire  is  very  bright. 
If  we  move  away  from  the  fire,  still  letting  the  same 
firelight  shine  on  us,  we  are  not  scorched  ;  this 
is  because  the  heating  power  of  the  rays  varies 
inversely  as  the  distance  from  their  source,  there- 
fore if  we  move  away  double  the  distance  we 
receive  one  quarter  of  the  heat  that  we  received 
before  we  moved.  If  we  draw  our  chairs  to  one 
side  we  are  not  scorched,  because  the  rays  of  heat 
do  not  travel  round  a  corner. 


CONDUCTION   OF   HEAT 

We  have  seen  that  the  ice-lens  was  not  affected 
by  the  passage  of  heat  through  it.  If  we  now  take 
hold  of  the  lens  we  shall  experience  a  feeling  of 
cold,  and  the  lens  will  begin  to  melt.  Heat  has 
passed  from  our  hand  into  the  ice.  The  process 
by  which  heat  passes  from  one  body  to  another  in 
contact  with  it  is  called  conduction.  The  funda- 
mental law  of  conduction  is,  that  heat  always 
passes  from  a  warm  body  to  a  cold  one.  Clerk 
Maxwell  illustrated  this  law  in  a  series  of  very 
simple  experiments.  He  placed  a  silver  teaspoon 
in  a  cup  of  hot  tea,  and  noted  that  the  handle 
became  warm  gradually  from  the  hot  tea  ;  the 
heat  passed  from  the  bowl  of  the  spoon  in  the 
tea  to  successive  parts  of  the  handle  until  the 
whole  spoon  was  hot.  His  second  experiment 
was  to  put  two  cold  spoons,  one  of  silver  and  one 
of  German  silver,  into  the  tea,  when  he  found  that 
the  same  phenomenon  took  place,  but  that  the  silvei 


SCIENCE    IN    THE    HOUSEHOLD      103 

spoon  became  hot  much  more  quickly  than  did 
the  German  silver  one.  He  then  put  three  spoons 
into  the  tea,  made  respectively  of  silver,  of  German 
silver,  and  of  bone.  In  the  result,  he  found  that 
when  the  other  two  were  hot,  the  bone  spoon 
hardly  showed  any  sign  of  heat  at  the  end  of  its 
handle. 

The  conclusion  to  be  drawn  from  these  experi- 
ments is  that  heat  passes  at  different  rates  through 
different  substances.  Substances  through  which 
heat  passes  quickly  are  called  good  conductors 
of  heat.  The  law  of  the  conductivity  of  heat  is 
that  in  a  homogeneous  body  the  flow  is  con- 
tinuous, and  is  from  the  region  of  high  temperature 
to  the  region  of  low  temperature,  and  that  it 
continues  until  the  body  is  of  uniform  tempera- 
ture throughout.  The  law  is  the  same  for  bodies 
of  different  materials  when  in  contact  one  with 
another. 

The  conduction  of  heat  is  in  operation  in  every 
department  of  domestic  life.  People  live  in  houses 
and  are  clothed  to  protect  them  from  the  vicissi- 
tudes of  the  weather,  including  the  cold  of  winter 
and  the  heat  of  summer  ;  use  is  made  of  the 
phenomenon  in  warming  the  house  and  in  the 
preparation  of  food. 

In  selecting  materials  for  various  purposes, 
account  has  to  be  taken  of  their  conductivities, 
for  in  some  cases  it  is  desirable  that  the  transfer 
of  heat  should  take  place  slowly,  and  in  others 
that  it  should  take  place  quickly.  It  might  be 
thought  that  the  conductivity  of  a  substance  could 


104      HOUSEHOLD   ADMINISTRATION 

be  estimated  by  touch,  but  a  little  reflection 
will  show  that  this  cannot  be  the  case.  The  flow 
of  heat  between  two  bodies  depends  upon  the 
difference  of  temperature  between  them,  and  if 
there  should  be  no  difference  of  temperature 
between  them  at  the  moment  of  touch  there  will 
be  no  flow  of  heat,  though  both  are  bodies  of 
greater  or  less  conductivity.  Let  us  take,  for 
example  of  the  uncertainty  of  estimation  by  touch, 
a  well-known  experiment.  Suppose  we  have  a 
basin  of  hot  water  and  a  basin  of  cold  water,  and 
place  a  hand  in  each  for  a  few  moments  ;  suppose 
we  withdraw  the  hands  and  plunge  them  into  a 
basin  of  tepid  water,  we  shall  find  that  the  tepid 
water  feels  cold  to  the  hand  that  was  in  the  hot 
water  and  warm  to  the  hand  that  was  in  the  cold 
water. 

Luckily,  it  has  been  found  possible  in  the 
laboratory  to  refer  substances  to  a  common 
standard  and  to  assign  numerical  values  to  them 
in  order  of  their  conductivities,  so  that  substances 
can  be  compared  and  a  selection  made  for  any 
desired  purpose.  Pure  silver  has  the  highest 
conductivity;  other  useful  materials  take  the  follow- 
ing order :  copper,  zinc,  lead,  iron,  steel,  marble, 
glass,  brick,  slate,  wood,  fur,  cotton,  flannel,  water, 
air.  Fur  and  wool  no  doubt  owe  much  of  their 
warmth  to  the  fact  that  they  consist  of  fibres 
which  enclose  a  good  deal  of  air,  but  as  a  matter 
of  fact  the  warmth  of  loosely  woven  woollen  and 
knitted  articles  in  general  is  often  overrated ;  they 
are  very  warm  as  under  garments  or  in  calm 


SCIENCE    IN    THE    HOUSEHOLD      105 

weather,  but  in  windy  weather  the  air  in  them 
is  rapidly  changed  and  the  cold  seems  to  blow 
through  them.  If  for  any  purpose  we  select  a 
material  from  its  place  in  a  table  of  comparative 
conductivities,  and  use  it  without  reference  to  the 
law  of  conduction  of  heat,  we  shall  probably  be 
disappointed  with  the  result.  We  know  that 
cotton  burns  easily  ;  if  we  stretch  a  cotton  hand- 
kerchief over  the  back  of  a  gold  watch  and  place 
a  red-hot  cinder  from  the  fire  on  the  handkerchief 
on  the  watch,  the  handkerchief  will  not  be  burnt. 

Many  interesting  problems  present  themselves 
when  a  house  has  to  be  built  or  rented.  There 
is  often  opportunity  for  some  choice  of  material 
in  walls  or  roof,  and  some  peculiarities  to  be 
considered.  Are  the  top  rooms  of  a  thatched 
cottage  warmer  or  colder  than  the  top  rooms  of  a 
house  covered  with  slates  ?  Is  a  wooden  or  an 
iron  building  warmer  ?  What  difference  does  it 
make  if  the  iron  building  is  lined  with  wood  ?  If 
the  iron  walls  were  twice  as  thick,  what  would  be 
the  effect  inside  the  room  ?  Would  the  walls  of 
such  a  building  be  always  dry  inside  ?  It  some- 
times happens  that  the  end  wall  of  a  row  of  houses 
is  covered  with  slates  to  preserve  it  from  the 
effects  of  storms  of  wind  and  rain  ;  will  that  inside 
wall  be  always  dry  ? 

But  the  housewife  is  probably  more  interested 
in  those  articles  in  use  in  the  house  which  it  is 
her  business  to  provide.  Shall  the  stoves  be  of 
slate  or  iron  ?  In  olden  days  warming-pans  were 
made  of  copper.  What  change  in  the  manner  of 


io6     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

use  justifies  making  them  of  earthenware  or  India- 
rubber  ?  The  slow  transmission  of  heat  through 
thick  woollen  materials  has  been  applied  to  the 
construction  of  Norwegian  cooking-stoves  (Fig.  5). 

These  stoves  consist  of 
a  wooden  box,  lined 
with  well-padded  felt. 
The  cooking  vessels  are 
of  metal ;  the  food  when 
at  boiling  point  is  placed 
in  these  vessels  and 
the  lids  put  on,  a  thick 
padded  felt  is  placed 
on  the  vessels  and  en- 
tirely fills  the  wooden 
lid  of  the  box  which  is 
then  closed  ;  the  heat 
is  preserved  so  that  the 
cooking  is  continued 
without  further  atten- 
tion. Would  it  be  possible  to  use  the  Norwegian 
stove  as  a  refrigerator  ?  Would  it  keep  an  ice 
pudding  cold  without  any  alteration  ?  In  connec- 
tion with  this  we  may  ask  why  freezing  machines 
have  the  inner  vessel  in  which  the  freezing  takes 
place  of  zinc,  and  the  outer  vessel  which  contains 
the  ice  and  salt  of  wood  ?  What  would  be  the 
effect  of  interchanging  the  materials  ? 

It  is  possible  that  the  excellence  of  some  con- 
tinental cookery  is  due  to  the  extensive  use  on  the 
continent  of  earthenware  cooking  utensils  through 
which  heat  passes  very  slowly.  The  growing 


FIG.  5. 


SCIENCE    IN    THE    HOUSEHOLD      107 

fashion  of  using  enamelled  cooking  vessels  must 
have  some  effect  on  the  food  cooked  in  them  as 
heat  certainly  passes  quickly  through  them.  Re- 
ference has  been  made  to  them  simply  to  demon- 
strate the  universality  of  the  application  of  physical 
laws,  and  we  may  now  return  to  the  house  and  its 
arrangement  for  the  comfort  of  the  inmates. 

METHODS  OF  DOMESTIC  HEATING 

The  two  methods  of  warming  a  house  are  by 
radiation  and  conduction.  We  may  surmise  that 
in  any  case  both  methods  will  be  in  use,  but  the  one 
will  predominate ;  for  instance,  in  heating  by  an 
open  fire  radiation  will  predominate,  and  in  heat- 
ing by  stoves  and  radiators  conduction  will 
predominate.  In  planning  a  house  a  decision 
must  be  made  between  the  two.  This  decision 
being  made  there  is  the  further  consideration  of 
where  the  source  of  heat  shall  be  placed.  In  the 
case  of  an  open  fireplace  shall  it  be  in  an  end 
wall,  in  a  corner,  in  an  outside  wall,  and  so  on, 
the  object  being  to  make  the  greatest  possible  use 
of  the  heat  that  passes  up  the  chimney  and  of 
that  which  radiates  into  the  room.  The  same 
consideration  must  be  paid  to  the  situation  of  the 
closed  stove  ;  where  will  it  pass  heat  by  conduc- 
tion to  the  greatest  volume  of  air,  and  where  can 
its  radiant  heat  be  utilised  ? 

In  a  room  heated  by  a  stove  there  is  frequently 
a  vessel  of  water  placed  by  or  on  the  top  of  the 
stove.  If  we  ask  what  is  the  purpose  of  this 


io8     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

water  we  shall  be  told  that  the  stove  dries  the 
air  in  the  room.  Now,  it  is  impossible  that  the 
heat  of  the  stove  should  remove  any  moisture 
from  the  air ;  we  must  therefore  seek  an  answer  to 
the  question,  What  is  dry  air  ?  The  sensation  of 
the  dryness  or  moisture  of  the  air  does  not 
depend  only  upon  the  amount  of  vapour  in  the 
air  but  upon  the  ratio  of  the  amount  present  to 
the  amount  that  the  air  is  able  to  hold  at  the 
given  temperature.  The  warmer  the  air  is  the 
more  vapour  it  can  hold,  hence  when  the  air  is 
warmed  the  percentage  of  water  present  to  the 
possible  amount  in  it  is  lowered ;  that  is  its 
humidity,  which  is  the  percentage  amount,  is 
lowered,  and  we  feel  it  to  be  dry.  The  question 
may  arise  why  we  should  feel  this  when  the  room 
is  heated  by  a  stove  and  not  when  it  is  heated  by 
an  open  fire  ?  It  may  be  that  in  a  room  with  an 
open  fire  we  are  warmed  by  radiation  and  give 
out  heat  to  the  surrounding  air  which  is  con- 
stantly changed  by  convection  currents,  so  that  the 
air  we  breathe  is  colder  than  we  ourselves  ;  and 
that  in  a  room  warmed  by  a  stove  we  receive  heat 
from  the  air  and  are  constantly  breathing  air  that 
is  warmer  than  we  ourselves.  But  it  is  more  than 
probable  that  the  custom  of  providing  a  source  of 
moisture  to  the  air  persists  from  the  suggestion  of  a 
single  person  in  seeking  to  relieve  the  disagreeable 
feeling  attending  the  breathing  of  air  laden  with 
the  poisonous  products  of  half-consumed  gas, 
and  that  it  has  no  real  scientific  foundation. 

How  to  estimate  temperatures. — Whatever  method 


SCIENCE    IN    THE    HOUSEHOLD      109 

is  adopted  for  warming  a  room,  the  housewife  may 
be  assured  that  the  resulting  temperature  will  not  be 
pleasing  to  every  member  of  the  family.  One  will 
find  it  too  warm,  and  another  will  at  the  same 
time  find  it  too  cold,  and  this  not  from  any  wilful 
captiousness  but  from  the  cause  that  we  have 
already  alluded  to,  that  the  feelings  are  a  very 
uncertain  test  of  temperature.  It  is  therefore 
advisable  to  keep  the  air  of  the  room  as  far  as 
possible  at  a  standard  temperature.  To  do  this  it 
will  be  necessary  to  have  a  thermometer  in  the 
room,  and  to  know  what  its  readings  indicate. 
When  the  thermometer  registers  32°  Fahr.  or 
less,  water  will  freeze  in  the  room,  and  the  vessels 
in  which  it  is  kept  will  burst  ;  it  is  therefore  wise, 
when  it  is  anticipated  that  the  temperature  will 
fall  below  32°  Fahr.,  to  empty  the  ewers  and 
bottles  that  may  be  in  the  room.  From  32°  Fahr. 
to  40°  Fahr.  the  room  will  be  very  cold,  up  to 
and  including  58°  Fahr.  it  will  be  too  cold  to  be 
pleasant ;  the  standard  temperature  may  be  taken 
as  between  62°  and  64°  Fahr. 

It  may  appear  a  simple  matter  to  hang  up  a 
thermometer  and  read  it,  but  a  little  thought  will 
show  that  it  is  not  so  easy  as  it  seems.  If,  for 
instance,  the  thermometer  is  placed  in  front  of  the 
fire  at  a  distance,,  say  of  four  feet  from  it,  what  will 
its  reading  indicate  ?  Will  it  be  the  temperature 
of  the  air  of  the  room  or  the  temperature  of  the 
fire,  or  if  neither,  what  will  it  be  ?  Suppose  we 
have  two  identical  thermometers,  and  hang  them 
on  adjacent  walls,  one  of  which  is  an  outside  wall, 


no     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

which  of  the  two  readings  shall  we  take  as  that  of 
the  temperature  of  the  room  ?  It  is  not  an  easy 
matter  to  decide.  In  a  sick-room,  where  one 
person's  comfort  only  has  to  be  considered  the 
doctor  will  order  the  thermometer  to  be  hung  at 
the  bed-head,  but  we  cannot  adopt  this  plan  in  a 
general  sitting-room. 

CHEMICAL  SCIENCE  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD 

In  our  endeavour  to  establish  the  claims  of 
the  science  of  chemistry  to  a  prominent  place 
in  the  educational  equipment  of  women,  all  re- 
ference to  those  most  interesting  and  important 
chemical  phenomena  that  accompany  the  exercise 
of  the  physiological  functions  will  be  omitted  ; 
as  also  those  which  are  most  immediately  con- 
cerned with  the  preparation  of  food.  Attention 
will  be  confined  to  some  of  the  common  occur- 
rences of  daily  life,  the  methods  of  dealing  with 
which  are  typical  of  the  method  adopted  in  con- 
sidering more  important  and  abstruse  problems. 

Perhaps  one  of  the  most  disappointing  experi- 
ences of  the  novice  in  housekeeping  is  the 
rapidity  with  which  everything  assumes  a  shabby 
aspect.  Bright  paint  grows  dull,  dull  paint  wears 
away,  curtains  and  fabrics  fade,  and  very  soon 
mistress  and  maids  alike  feel  that  the  house  no 
longer  repays  the  trouble  incurred  in  the  spring- 
cleaning  that  it  must  still  undergo.  This  spring- 
cleaning,  the  primary  object  of  which  is  the 
preservation  of  the  beauty  and  substance  of  the 


SCIENCE    IN    THE    HOUSEHOLD      in 

house  and  its  appointments,  is  in  the  result  the 
cause  of  much  of  their  deterioration. 

Cleaning  consists  in  removing  dirt  by  means 
that  are  partly  physical  and  partly  chemical  ;  for 
instance,  the  removal  of  dust  by  sweeping,  shaking, 
or  brushing  is  a  physical  operation,  and  the  re- 
moval of  dirt  and  grease  by  dissolving  them  in 
soapy  water  involves  their  change  by  a  chemical 
process.  If  the  surfaces  or  materials  to  be 
cleaned  include  a  substance  on  which  the  cleans- 
ing agent  can  operate  the  agent  will  not  confine 
its  work  to  the  removal  of  the  dirt  only  ;  in  wash- 
ing coloured  fabrics  we  know  how  often  the  colour 
comes  out  with  the  dirt.  Knowledge  therefore, 
not  only  of  the  composition  and  properties  of 
cleansing  agents,  but  also  of  the  surfaces  and 
materials  to  which  they  are  to  be  applied,  is 
essential,  and  we  should  find  that  it  is  not  always 
the  powder  or  paste  which  makes  the  greatest 
show  of  cleanliness  in  the  shortest  time,  with  least 
expenditure  of  labour,  that  is  the  most  to  be 
desired. 

The  use  of  alkalies. — The  most  common  cleans- 
ing agents  are  hot  water,  soap,  and  soda.  Hot 
water  is  itself  a  detergent  ;  that  is,  it  has  the  power 
of  dissolving  dirt.  It  does  not,  however,  dissolve 
grease,  and  all  household  dirt  is  more  or  less 
greasy,  hence  we  cannot  do  our  cleansing  with 
water  only,  and  we  are  accustomed  to  add  to  it 
soap  or  soda. 

It  is  not  easy  or  even  possible  to  discuss  the 
chemical  properties  of  substances  without  the  use 


H2      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

of  chemical  terms.  Substances  are  classified  for 
chemical  purposes  in  groups,  every  member  of 
which  exhibits  the  same  chemical  property,  and 
we  shall  require  to  distinguish  between  the  group 
called  acids  and  the  group  called  alkalies.  It 
will  be  sufficient  for  our  purpose  just  now  to 
know  that  acids  have  a  sour  taste  and  that  alkalies 
counteract  acids.  From  this  definition  lemon- 
juice  will  easily  be  recognised  as  an  acid.  If 
we  add  soda  to  lemon-juice  there  will  be  a  brisk 
effervescence  and  the  lemon-juice  will  no  longer 
be  sour,  hence  soda  is  an  alkali.  Alkalies  have 
another  well-known  chemical  property — they  dis- 
solve grease  and  oil  and  enable  them  to  mix  with 
water.  If  we  have  some  hot  water  in  a  tumbler 
and  pour  oil  into  it  the  oil  will  float  on  the  water, 
and  if  we  stir  the  two  together  the  oil  will  break 
into  globules  but  will  still  float  on  the  water  ;  we 
cannot  mix  them  together.  If  we  dissolve  some 
soda  in  hot  water  and  pour  in  oil  we  shall  find 
on  stirring  that  the  mixture  becomes  milky  or 
soapy  in  appearance  and  the  oil  and  water  are  no 
longer  discernible  as  different  fluids.  Moreover,  on 
standing  the  oil  will  not  again  separate  from  the 
water  ;  it  has  been  emulsified.  Oils  themselves 
have  the  chemical  power  of  dissolving  resins. 
Resins  are  hard,  bright  vegetable  gums  which  will 
come  under  our  notice  when  we  consider  the 
composition  of  varnishes. 

All  hard  soaps  are  made  from  soda,  grease,  and 
resin  ;  the  cheaper  soaps  contain  free  soda,  the 
dearer  ones  contain  an  excess  of  fat.  Yellow 


SCIENCE    IN    THE    HOUSEHOLD      113 

scrubbing  soap  contains  about  eight  per  cent,  of 
free  soda.  Both  soap  and  soda  can  be  dissolved 
in  water,  and  are  so  dissolved  for  cleaning 
purposes.  Knowing  the  constituents  of  our 
cleansing  agents,  we  can  consider  their  action  on 
paint  and  varnish.  Paint  contains  white-lead, 
linseed-oil,  and  colouring  matter.  It  is  not  very 
hard  when  dry  and  can  be  easily  scratched  with 
the  nail.  Varnish  is  made  from  linseed-oil,  resin, 
and  turpentine.  When  dry  it  should  be  very  hard 
and  bright. 

The  whole  of  the  painted  woodwork  of  the 
house  is  subjected  to  spring-cleaning  whatever  its 
appearance  with  regard  to  dirt  may  be.  The 
operator  throws  into  a  pailful  of  hot  water  a 
"handful"  of  soda,  soaks  a  scrubbing-brush  in 
the  mixture,  rubs  it  well  with  soap,  and  uses  it  to 
brush  the  somewhat  soft  paint  or  harder  varnish. 
The  soda  and  soap,  aided  by  the  heat,  soften  the 
paint  and  the  brush  removes  a  quantity  equal  to 
about  a  coat  of  paint.  The  effect  is  certainly  pleas- 
ing for  the  time  being,  but  there  will  be  no  difficulty 
in  understanding  that  the  process  can  only  be 
repeated  until  the  paint  and  varnish  grow  shabby 
or  disappear. 

It  is  not  wise  for  the  inexpert  housewife  to  trust 
to  unscientific  friends  for  advice  as  to  the  best 
materials  to  use  when  cleaning  paint.  A  foreman 
painter  once  gave,  as  a  recipe  for  this  purpose,  an 
instruction  to  add  a  tablespoonful  of  "  salts  of 
tartar"  to  three-quarters  of  a  pailful  of  water. 
The  result  was  a  very  rapid  and  complete  removal 

H 


114      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

of  dirt  from  the  paint,  but  the  housewife,  being 
dissatisfied  with  the  rather  dull  appearance  of  the 
white  varnish,  stroked  it  with  her  finger  and  found 
that  it  was  covered  with  a  fine  white  powder. 
The  maid's  assurance  that  this  was  all  right  and 
only  needed  to  be  removed  by  dusting  did  not 
satisfy  her,  and  she  began  to  wonder  what  chemical 
action  was  to  be  expected  from  "  salts  of  tartar." 
A  first  search  for  information  revealed  that  salts 
of  tartar  was  an  old  name  for  "  potassium  car- 
bonate," but  the  housewife  knew  no  chemistry  and 
had  never  heard  of  potassium  carbonate,  so  this 
information  was  useless  to  her.  She  had,  how- 
ever, had  some  scientific  training  and  was  not 
satisfied  to  rest  in  ignorance.  A  search  in  a  book 
on  elementary  chemistry  disclosed  the  further 
truth  that  the  commercial  name  for  "  potassium 
carbonate "  is  pearlash  !  She  then  remembered 
that  being  desirous  at  one  time  to  remove  the 
paint  from  some  oak  carving  said  to  be  two 
hundred  years'  old,  she  had  successfully  used  a 
solution  of  pearlash  painted  on  with  a  brush.  The 
paint  when  dry  from  the  application  had  been 
scraped  off  in  long,  tough  ribbons.  Of  course  the 
mixture  had  been  very  much  stronger  than  that 
prescribed  by  the  painter,  but  the  effect  had  been 
very  much  more  apparent. 

Acids  and  alkalies  are  to  some  extent  respon- 
sible for  the  fading  of  fabrics  in  the  wash  when 
these  fabrics  owe  their  colour  to  vegetable  dyes. 
Acids  turn  vegetable  blues  red,  alkalies  turn  vege- 
table blues  green  and  vegetable  yellows  brown. 


SCIENCE    IN    THE    HOUSEHOLD      115 

It  is  easy  to  illustrate  this  action  of  acids  and 
alkalies  on  vegetable  colours.  A  blue  liquid  can 
be  obtained  by  boiling  a  red  cabbage  in  water.  If 
we  take  two  portions  of  this  water  and  add  any 
acid,  say  lemon-juice,  to  one  portion  we  shall 
obtain  a  red  liquid  ;  if  we  add  any  alkali,  say 
soda,  to  the  other  portion  we  shall  obtain  a  green 
liquid.  If  we  go  a  step  further  and  add  lemon- 
juice  to  the  green  liquid  and  soda  to  the  red  liquid 
we  may  approach  very  nearly  to  our  original  blue 
liquid.  These  experiments  suggest  a  remedy  for  the 
change  of  colour  in  fabrics  on  washing  with  soda, 
but  the  dyes  most  commonly  used  are  not  vegetable 
dyes,  and  the  fading  of  the  fabrics  is  due  to  chemical 
changes,  into  which  we  have  no  space  to  enter. 

Strong  acids  and  alkalies  act  as  caustics  ;  that  is 
they  destroy  fabrics.  Continued  washing  in  strong 
soda  and  water  not  only  tends  to  destroy,  but 
also  spoils  the  appearance  of  all  kinds  of  wearing 
apparel  and  household  linen.  White  silk  and  wool 
at  once  become  yellow  on  being  washed  with  soap 
that  contains  free  soda,  and  linen  is  affected  in  the 
same  way  though  not  to  the  same  extent. 

The  widely  advertised  pastes  and  liquids  for 
cleaning  metal -work,  particularly  brass,  often 
contain  acids  or  alkalies  that  are  injurious  to 
metals.  If  after  cleaning  there  should  be  a  green 
deposit  on  brass  or  copper  it  will  be  wise  to  in- 
quire into  the  composition  of  such  deposit,  and 
to  discontinue  the  use  of  that  paste  or  liquid. 
When  brass  pans  are  used  for  boiling  fruit  for 
jams,  it  is  usual  to  rub  them  inside  with  a  slice  of 


n6     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

lemon  before  putting  in  the  fruit.  A  careful  house 
wife  will  consider  the  reason  for  this  custom 
We  remember  once  seeing  a  copper  pan,  that  hac 
been  provided  for  the  preparation  of  oatmea 
porridge,  with  a  band  about  an  inch  wide  o 
green  crystals  on  the  inside.  Inquiry  elicited  tha 
the  cook  had  thought  it  a  convenient  pan  in  which 
to  prepare  the  fish  (salt  haddock)  for  breakfast 
Ignorance  of  the  chemical  action  of  salt  and  acidj 
on  metals  may  lead  to  very  serious  results.  The 
common  name  for  the  green  deposit  on  bras 
and  copper  is  verdigris,  and  most  people  know 
that  verdigris  is  a  poisonous  compound  ;  the  diffi 
culty  is  that,  not  knowing  its  chemical  composition 
they  do  not  recognise  verdigris  when  they  see  it 
The  cook  thought  that  the  complaint  made  had  re 
ference  only  to  the  misuse  of  the  pan,  and  said  tha 
it  was  quite  easy  to  clean  the  green  deposit  off ! 

THE  CHEMISTRY  OF  -THE  BODY 

It  is  to  the  science  of  chemistry  that  we  ow< 
our  knowledge  of  the  composition  of  the  variou 
foodstuffs  from   which   dietaries   are   selected,   a 
well   as  of  the  several  parts  of  the  human  bod) 
which  relies  for  its  sustenance  on  those  dietaries 
But  the  adjustment  of  dietaries  to  the  work  the) 
have  to  do  is  a  more  complex  problem  than  thos 
we  have  hitherto  considered.     We  learn  from  th 
science  of  physiology  that  the  human  body  is 
laboratory  in  which  certain  juices  are  secreted  fo 
the  digestion  of  foods,  and  that  in  this  laboratory 


SCIENCE    IN    THE    HOUSEHOLD      117 

foods  must  be  reduced  to  the  consistency  neces- 
sary for  their  passage  through  animal  membranes  ; 
for  it  is  by  passage  through  membranes  that  the 
nutritive  parts  of  food  find  their  way  into  the 
general  circulation  of  the  blood  which  carries 
them  to  all  parts  of  the  system.  Very  few  food- 
stuffs are  available  for  use  in  their  natural  state, 
and  the  majority  of  them  are  prepared  for  con- 
sumption in  the  first  place  by  more  or  less 
elaborate  processes  included  in  the  art  of  cookery. 
When  thus  prepared  they  should  be  in  a  fit  state 
to  undergo  in  the  body  the  physical  changes 
comprised  in  mastication,  and  the  chemical  changes 
associated  with  the  process  of  digestion. 

It  might  be  surmised  by  the  thoughtful  parent 
that  as  the  child's  body  lacks  some  of  the  external 
features  of  the  adult  body,  such  as  hair  and  teeth, 
so  there  might,  and  probably  would,  be  corre- 
sponding lapses  in  the  internal  economy,  and  that 
therefore  the  food  prepared  for  the  adult  would 
be,  even  in  the  smallest  quantity,  unsuited  to  the 
child.  Physiologists  tell  us  that  this  is  so,  and  in 
particular  that  the  secretions  which  in  adult  life  are 
called  saliva  and  pancreatic  juice  and  which  have 
the  function  of  preparing  starch  for  digestion,  are 
at  this  time  scanty  in  amount  and  deficient  in 
chemical  action.  But  these  secretions  are  essen- 
tial for  the  digestion  of  starchy  foods,  and 
chemists  tell  us  that  starch  abounds  in  the  vege- 
table kingdom  from  which  most  of  the  food  of 
children  is  derived.  It  is  therefore  a  matter  of 
some  importance  that  every  person  in  charge  of 


n8      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

an  infant  should  have  that  amount  of  knowledge 
of  chemical  reactions  which  is  requisite  to  enable 
them  to  detect  whether  a  food  does  or  does  not 
contain  starch.  A  child  fed  entirely  on  starchy 
foods  suffers  from  malnutrition  of  so  serious  a 
character  that  death  may,  and  often  does,  ensue 
Even  if  other  suitable  food,  such  as  modified  milk 
be  given,  the  internal  economy  of  the  child  will  be 
seriously  disturbed. 

The  names  by  which  patent  foods  are  adver- 
tised are  very  often  misleading  to  unscientific 
persons,  and  invalids  have  suffered  much  from 
the  mistaken  idea  that  jellies  and  meat  extracts 
are  foods.  Meat  extracts  have  their  use,  but  an 
invalid  fed  on  extract  of  beef  only  would  di( 
sooner  than  one  left  with  no  food  at  all.  Th< 
reason  for  this  can  be  learned  from  the  know- 
ledge of  the  constituents  of  beef  extracts  and  the 
part  they  play  in  the  human  organism. 

CONCLUSION 

If  we  have  seemed  to  lay  stress  on  the  valu< 
of  a  knowledge  of  the  sciences  of  physic 
and  chemistry  to  the  exclusion  of  the  mentioi 
of  others,  our  justification  of  the  fact  is  tha 
space  is  limited,  and  that  we  believe  that  physic 
and  chemistry  underlie  all  the  other  sciences 
and  are  of  paramount  importance  to  students  o 
all  other  subjects.  In  the  sciences  of  biology 
physiology,  botany,  geology,  &c.,  little  advanc< 
can  be  made  without  a  knowledge  of  the  funda 


SCIENCE    IN    THE    HOUSEHOLD      119 

mental  laws  of  nature.  The  physical  laws  control 
movement,  and  the  chemical  laws  control  growth, 
whether  of  animate  or  inanimate  nature.  Physical 
and  chemical  phenomena  are  concerned  in  the 
upheaval  of  rocks  and  mountains  which  govern 
the  contour  of  the  continents  of  the  world.  These 
contours  influence  climates  and  peoples  ;  as  the 
contours  change  the  people  change.  The  dwellers 
in  the  mountain  regions  differ  in  character  from 
the  dwellers  in  valleys  and  plains  ;  the  inhabitants 
of  cold  districts  differ  from  the  inhabitants  of 
warm  districts ;  but  it  is  people  who  make  history, 
and  historians  cannot  afford  to  pass  by  natural 
environments  and  natural  laws. 

If  a  foundation  of  the  fundamental  sciences  be 
laid  at  school  the  student  can  subsequently  build 
upon  it  the  special  science  that  is  suited  to  his 
career.  It  matters  little  what  the  calling  in  life  of 
any  person  may  be;  if  he  aim  at  success  in  that 
calling  he  must  acquaint  himself  with  the  laws  by 
which  he  has  his  being,  and  by  which  he  must 
perforce  be  guided  in  all  his  actions  as  well  as  in 
his  intercourse  with  his  fellow-men. 

The  many  avenues  now  open  to  women  for 
public  work  entail  on  them  the  responsibility  of 
fitting  themselves  for  that  work.  They  as  much 
as,  if  not  more  than,  the  housewife  need  to  study 
the  sciences  which  treat  of  the  safeguarding  of 
human  life.  As  councillors  dealing  with  sanitary 
and  building  laws,  as  inspectors  of  workrooms,  of 
institutions,  and  of  the  conditions  of  child-life,  they 
owe  it  to  themselves  and  to  the  community  they 


120     HOUSEHOLD   ADMINISTRATION 

serve  not  to  undertake  those  duties  without  ade- 
quate knowledge.  Adequate  knowledge  must  be 
taken  to  mean  scientific  knowledge  of  those 
matters  of  which,  by  offering  themselves  for  such 
appointments,  they  assume  an  expert  knowledge. 
It  is  an  irony  that  scientific  training  should  be 
willingly  and  even  eagerly  acquired  when  it  is  a 
question  of  qualifying  for  a  salaried  post  for 
work  among  strangers,  and  that  a  mother  should 
be  content  to  bring  to  bear  on  the  well-being  and 
lives  of  her  own  circle  unscientific  and  amateur 
experience. 

We  have  only  been  able  to  touch  the  skirt  of  a 
great  subject,  but  our  end  will  have  been  achieved 
if  we  have  succeeded  in  pointing  the  way  for 
a  fuller  realisation  of  the  aims  of  earnest  men 
and  women  for  the  saving  of  child-life  and  the 
mitigation  of  disease,  and  if  we  have  shown  how 
great  that  subject  is — how  much  too  great  for 
anything  but  the  most  superficial  treatment  in  a 
single  article. 


THE   ECONOMIC   RELATIONS  OF 
THE   HOUSEHOLD 

BY  MABEL  ATKINSON,  M.A.  (GLASGOW) 


THE  ECONOMIC  RELATIONS  OF 
THE   HOUSEHOLD 

I.   INTRODUCTORY 

THE  household  has  been  treated  by  economists 
with  curious  negligence.  The  founder  of  political 
economy  showed  so  little  insight  into  the  real 
nature  of  the  work  carried  on  there  as  to  class 
those  whom  he  described  as  menial  servants  with 
unproductive  labourers.1  The  later  classical 
economists  have  followed  his  lead.  Marshall,  it 
is  true,  shows  throughout  his  books  an  apprecia- 
tion of  the  position  and  responsibilities  of  the 
housewife  and  the  mother  which  is  foreign  to 
most  of  his  colleagues.2  But  he  has  never  attempted 
to  analyse  the  economic  functions  of  the  house- 
hold, or  to  show  its  varying  relations  to  the  rest 
of  the  community  ;  neither  has  he  pointed  out 
the  peculiar  factors  which  differentiate  the  position 

1  Smith,  "Wealth  of  Nations,"  edited  by  J.  S.  Nicholson,  pp.  135 
and  280.     It  is  of  course  true  that  Adam  Smith  meant  by  this  merely 
what  is  in  a  way  true,  that  domestic  servants  earn  no  profit  for  their 
employers.     He  does   not  deny  (p.   136)   that   their  labour   "has  a 
certain  value."     But,  like  all  the  economists  who  followed  him,  he  is 
content  to  dismiss  domestic  workers  with  this  cursory  treatment  and  to 
identify  labourers  with  the  workers  hired  for  profit-making  purposes. 
2  See  "Principles  of  Economics"  (4th  ed.),  pp.  192,  772. 
123 


124     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

and  remuneration  of  the  women  employed  in 
domestic  activities  from  those  of  all  other  workers. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  more  modern  school  of 
economists,  those  who  devote  themselves  to  the 
history  of  economic  development  in  the  past  or 
to  the  intensive  study  of  special  economic  institu- 
tions in  the  present,  have  equally  failed  to  dis- 
cuss with  any  adequacy  the  organisation  of  the 
household. 

The  economic  historians  describe  with  minute- 
ness the  rise  and  fall  of  gilds  and  chartered  com- 
panies, the  workings  of  different  methods  of 
education  and  of  poor  relief  in  successive  epochs. 
They  rarely  indicate  how  the  various  forms  of 
industrial  organisation  translated  themselves  into 
the  domestic  expenditure  of  the  people.  It  would, 
for  instance,  be  very  difficult  to  extract  from  the 
pages  of  the  economic  historians  an  answer  to  the 
question,  "  What  were  the  conditions  determining 
the  supply  of  domestic  servants  at  the  close  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  in  the  eighteenth  century  and  in 
the  nineteenth  century  respectively  ?  "  It  is  not 
easy  to  answer  definitely  even  simpler  and  more 
fundamental  questions  than  these.  It  is  often 
stated,  for  example,  that  the  household  arrange- 
ments of  the  serfs  on  the  mediaeval  manors  were 
rude  and  uncomfortable  to  the  last  degree,1  but  it 
is  certain  that  this  is  not  so  universally  true  as  has 
been  thought.  Some  at  all  events  of  the  more 

1  Marshall,  "  Principles"  (4th  ed.),  p.  764  :  "  The  working  classes 
had  then  no  other  beds  than  loose  straw,  reeking  with  vermin  and 
resting  on  damp  floors." 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS       125 

prosperous  inhabitants  of  the  manors  possessed 
household  furniture  and  equipments  of  a  kind 
not  inferior  to  the  outfit  of  the  casual  labourer 
to-day.  Sheets,  for  example,  are  mentioned  several 
times  in  extant  inventories.  But  much  more  in- 
vestigation than  has  yet  been  possible  would  be 
necessary  before  it  could  be  determined  whether 
these  instances  of  a  higher  standard  of  comfort 
are  or  are  not  exceptions  to  a  general  rule. 

To  take  other  instances  of  unsettled  problems  : 
How  was  pottery  made  in  the  Middle  Ages — by 
travelling  potters  as  in  the  East  to-day,  by  gilds 
of  potters,  or  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  manor 
directly  for  their  own  use  ?  Or  again  :  When  did 
the  custom  of  building  houses  to  let  on  rent 
first  become  general  in  England  ?  It  is  clear 
that  the  habit  of  living  in  rented  houses  has  and 
must  have  the  most  profound  influence  on  family 
life  and  national  character.  But  so  far,  neither 
from  economic  histories  on  the  one  hand  nor  from 
histories  of  architecture  on  the  other,  have  I  been 
able  to  obtain  any  reliable  information  on  this 
point. 

When  one  turns  to  even  more  important 
questions — such,  for  instance,  as  the  industrial 
position  of  women  at  different  epochs — it  is  equally 
difficult  to  obtain  precise  and  detailed  knowledge. 
Without  a  very  lengthy  and  elaborate  investigation 
of  the  extant  original  materials,  many  of  them 
scattered  in  municipal  chambers  in  distant  parts 
of  England,  it  would  be  quite  impossible  to  say  on 
what  terms  women  were  admitted  as  members  of 


126     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

the  gilds  and  fraternities  which  extended  over  the 
whole  area  of  industrial  life  in  the  Middle  Ages. 
The  character  and  organisation  of  the  household 
and  the  position  of  women  in  the  Middle  Ages 
are  subjects  still  practically  untouched  by  the 
economic  historians.1 

When  we  turn  to  modern  times,  a  little  more 
material  has  been  collected.  There  is  an  investi- 
gation by  the  Board  of  Trade  into  the  wages  of 
domestic  servants,  and  a  book  on  domestic  service 
by  Professor  Lucy  Salmon  of  Vassar  College.  It 
deals  of  course  mainly  with  American  conditions, 
but  cannot  be  neglected  by  any  English  student 
of  the  economic  relations  of  the  household. 

Humanitarianism  has  prompted  studies  more  or 
less  elaborate  of  the  dietaries  and  housing  con- 
ditions of  the  working  classes,  especially  in  towns,2 
but  it  would  be  idle  to  pretend  that  there  has 
been  yet  more  than  a  beginning  made  of  the  task 
of  determining  how  for  each  class  of  the  com- 
munity its  share  of  the  national  income  as  stated 
in  money  is  translated  into  the  necessaries,  com- 
forts, and  luxuries  of  life,  into  house-room,  fuel, 
food,  cleanliness,  clothing,  insurance,  domestic 
service,  recreation,  and  culture.  The  generalisa- 
tions available  are  of  the  most  meagre  description. 
We  can,  for  instance,  say  with  tolerable  certainty 
that  the  agricultural  labourer  spends  three-fourths 
of  his  income  on  food,  the  town  labourer  two- 

1  Thorold  Rogers  is  a  partial  exception. 

2  e.g.  Rowntree,  "  Poverty :  a  Study  of  Town  Life ; "  portions  of 
Booth's  "  Life  and  Labour  of  the  People ; "  reports  to  the  Board  of 
Trade  on  the  cost  of  living. 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS        127 

thirds,  the  artisan  a  half,  the  middle-class  man 
from  a  third  to  a  fourth  ;  but  there  is  practically 
no  reliable  information  with  regard  to  very  large 
incomes,  or  to  sums  spent  on  clothing  in  any 
section  of  the  community. 

Moreover,  there  is  one  class — large,  growing  in 
importance,  and  an  essential  element  in  modern 
civilisation — about  whose  domestic  expenditure  we 
have  no  scientific  knowledge  at  all.  This  is  the 
class  which  may  be  named  "the  routine  brain- 
workers,"  the  people  who  as  clerks,  book-keepers, 
salesmen,  typists,  &c.,  are  responsible  for  the 
routine  administration  of  modern  commerce. 
They  have  been  compared  to  the  nervous  system, 
for  like  that  system  in  the  animal  body  they  serve 
for  the  communication  and  the  mechanical  record 
of  the  life  of  the  community  on  its  industrial  side. 
With  them  may  be  classed  elementary  school- 
teachers, reporters,  and  the  lower  ranks  of  the 
Civil  Service,  though  I  should  not  be  prepared 
to  say  that  some  of  these — especially  the  teachers 
— ought  to  be  regarded  as  performing  only  routine 
brain-work.  But  all  these  workers  can  be  con- 
veniently studied  together  in  that  their  labour  is 
carried  on  under  somewhat  similar  conditions — 
it  is  sedentary,  highly  regimented,  exhausting  to 
the  brain  and  nervous  system,  and  is  generally 
remunerated  by  a  fixed  salary,  &c.  They  earn 
an  income  larger  than  that  of  the  manual  labourer, 
but  considerably  less  as  a  general  rule  than  that 
of  the  professional  man.  There  is  a  total  absence 
of  information  as  to  the  domestic  expenditure  of 


128      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

this  class.  It  is  sometimes  declared  that  its  less 
well-paid  members  suffer  as  severely  from  poverty 
as  do  sections  of  the  working-class,  and  that  the 
poor  clerk  is  really  much  more  to  be  pitied  than 
the  well-to-do  trade  unionist,  the  skilled  manual 
worker. 

But  no  one  has  yet  attempted  to  test  the  truth 
of  this  view  by  the  only  scientific  means,  namely, 
by  the  collection  of  precise  details  as  to  the 
domestic  expenditure  of  the  routine  brain-working 
class,  showing  what  sums  are  spent  on  house- 
room,  food,  clothing,  &c.,  and  what  kind  of 
accommodation  is  obtained  for  the  money  spent. 
In  short,  the  investigation  of  domestic  expenditure 
has  never  yet  been  carried  out  in  a  purely 
scientific  spirit  solely  for  the  sake  of  the  resultant 
knowledge.  It  has  always  been  undertaken  with 
some  special  practical  problem  in  view,  and  is 
consequently  always  fragmentary  and  frequently 
biassed. 

Yet  if  it  is  important  to  know  how  the  wealth 
of  the  country  is  produced,  it  is  of  equal  import- 
ance to  know  how  it  is  consumed,  and  that 
whether  the  consumption  takes  the  form  of 
porridge  and  flannelette  for  the  child  of  a  dock- 
labourer,  of  drink  and  admission  to  a  football 
match  for  the  miner  or  cotton-operative,  or  of 
a  gardener,  and  a  holiday  in  Switzerland  for  the 
hard-working  doctor  or  stockbroker.  Domestic 
expenditure  should  be  investigated  as  impartially 
by  the  economist  as  are  the  variations  of  plants 
or  animals  by  the  biologist.  His  one  aim  should 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS        129 

be  the  discovery  and  statement  of  truth,  as  com- 
plete and  as  unbiassed  as  he  can  make  it. 

Hitherto,  as  I  have  said,  this  field  of  re- 
search has  remained  comparatively  untouched. 
In  the  first  place,  economists  have  generally  been 
men,  and  have  naturally  devoted  their  energies 
to  the  elucidation  of  the  problems  of  industry 
and  business  which  concern  men  most  closely. 
Few  women,  on  the  other  hand,  have  until  recently 
received  any  training  in  economics,  and  it  has 
never  occurred  to  them  that  the  familiar  and 
wearisome  problems  of  the  rent,  the  butcher's  bill, 
and  the  children's  clothes,  together  with  the  diffi- 
culty of  finding  a  satisfactory  cook,  may  have  a 
wider  aspect  than  the  narrow  and  personal  one. 
But  even  as  it  is,  the  few  women  who  have  distin- 
guished themselves  in  the  sphere  of  economics 
have  in  a  note  or  a  casual  remark  pointed  out 
distinctions  between  household  management  and 
other  branches  of  industry  which  cast  a  flood  of 
light  on  the  whole  subject.  There  is  a  para- 
graph in  the  second  volume  of  "  Industrial  Demo- 
cracy " l  which  lays  down  the  difference  between 
the  underlying  principles  of  business  and  of  the 
administration  of  the  home  in  a  few  words  which 
might  serve  as  the  text  for  a  volume.  It  is  pre- 
cisely this  difference,  first  clearly  indicated  by  Mrs. 
Webb,  which  constitutes  the  second  ground  for  the 
common  neglect  of  this  branch  of  economics.  A 
factory  or  a  shop  is  run  for  profit ;  a  household 

1  Webb,  S.  and  B.,  "  Industrial  Democracy  "  (cheap  edition),  p.  674. 

I 


130     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

simply  to  provide  comfort  and  convenience  for 
its  members.  To  put  it  in  technical  language, 
in  the  world  of  industry  we  are  concerned  with 
exchange  values,  but  in  the  home  with  use  values 
alone.  From  this  distinction,  overlooked  by 
reason  of  its  obviousness,  there  flow  a  large 
number  of  consequences  which  will  be  discussed 
later.  At  present  we  are  only  concerned  to  show 
that  economists,  with  their  eyes  fixed  on  trade  and 
the  mechanism  of  trade,  very  naturally  neglected 
that  section  of  life  in  which  values,  material  and 
immaterial,  were  being  continually  created,  but 
for  use  alone,  not  for  commercial  purposes. 

The  wife  who  cooks  her  husband's  dinner,  or 
caters,  organises,  and  keeps  accounts  for  him,  is 
really  engaged  in  work  which  in  any  rational 
interpretation  of  the  word  has  far  more  right  to 
be  called  productive  than  is  much  of  the  labour 
employed  in  manufacture  or  business.  But  the 
work  accomplished  by  the  wife  in  the  household 
has  never  yet  received  its  full  acknowledgment 
from  the  economists.  The  truth  is  that,  although 
they  constantly  warn  students  to  avoid  the  vulgar 
error  of  confusing  money  wages  with  real  wages, 
they  themselves  have  been  so  biassed  by  the 
commercial  conception  of  profit-making  that  they 
have  almost  completely  overlooked  even  the  purely 
economic  value  of  much  work,  such  as  cooking, 
cleaning,  and  clothes-making,  which  is  carried  on 
within  the  home,  not  for  profit-making  or  for  a 
salary,  but  as  part  of  the  duties  attaching  to  the 
status  of  wife  and  mother.  It  is  acknowledged 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS        131 

by  the  economists  themselves l  that  although  in 
theory  they  have  set  aside  a  section  to  be  devoted 
to  the  discussion  of  "  consumption "  as  other 
sections  deal  with  "  production "  and  "  distri- 
bution "  of  wealth,  yet  in  practice  the  treatment  of 
consumption  has  been  meagre  and  ineffective. 
This,  perhaps,  is  inevitable — it  is  certainly  regret- 
table— and  women  economists  would  be  perform- 
ing a  most  useful  work  if  they  were  to  undertake 
a  careful  and  detailed  investigation  into  the 
consumption  of  wealth  at  different  epochs  and  by 
different  classes  of  the  community,  and  one,  more- 
over, for  which  their  connection  with  house-keep- 
ing, which  is  only  the  practical  application  of  the 
science  of  the  consumption  of  wealth,  would  have 
already  partially  prepared  them. 

There  is  still  another  reason  why  a  scientific 
treatment  of  the  consumption  of  wealth  has  been 
delayed.  It  could  not  be  developed  until  medicine 
and  hygiene  had  provided  us  with  satisfactory 
standards  of  the  needs  of  the  human  body.  When 
food,  for  example,  was  still  regarded  purely  as  a 
matter  of  individual  likes  and  dislikes,  it  was 
impossible  to  discuss  at  all  adequately  the  suffi- 
ciency or  insufficiency  of  the  food  consumption 
of  a  given  class.  But  now  that  we  know  that 
the  varying  tastes  simply  express  in  different  ways 
the  need  for  so  much  proteid,  carbo-hydrates  and 
fats,  we  have  a  firm  basis  on  which  to  work.  It 
is  true  that  it  is  not  yet  quite  so  firm  as  we  could 

1  Marshall,  "Principles  of  Economics,"  vol.  i.  p.  159. 


132      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

wish ;  the  scientists  have  not  yet  succeeded  even  for 
a  single  class  in  fixing  a  dietary  standard  which 
would  be  accepted  by  all  in  particular,  and  recently 
the  investigations  of  Professor  Chittenden  have 
suggested  that  the  amount  of  proteid  hitherto 
thought  essential  may  be  excessive.  Moreover,  little 
attention  has  yet  been  paid  to  the  need  of  differ- 
ent food  for  different  work.  Yet  it  seems  probable, 
to  say  the  least,  that  the  sedentary  worker,  using 
his  brain  and  not  his  muscles,  may  require  lighter 
and  daintier  food  than  the  labourer  in  the  fields  or 
the  docks,  and  may  really  suffer  as  seriously  if 
that  better  food  be  denied  him  as  does  the  latter 
if  he  fails  to  secure  a  sufficiency  of  coarser  and 
cheaper  nutriment.  This  question  would  be  of 
great  importance  in  investigating  the  expenditure 
of  the  clerk  class.  But  although  the  scientists  have 
here  failed  to  provide  the  students  of  domestic 
expenditure  with  all  the  data  required,  yet  there 
is  sufficient  knowledge  of  the  general  principles 
of  dietetics  to  enable  us  to  base  our  study  of  food 
consumption  on  a  fairly  sound  basis. 

In  the  same  way  a  standard  of  housing  accom- 
modation establishing  the  minimum  of  space  per 
head  necessary  for  health  is  generally  recognised  ; 
and  on  these  and  similar  calculations,  correlated 
with  the  cost  of  house-room  and  commodities, 
it  will  be  possible  to  build  up  a  science  of  con- 
sumption which  will  be  really  a  science  and  not 
a  series  of  guesses  and  vague  generalities. 

It  is  true,  again,  that  it  is  easier  to  deal  with 
the  grades  of  society  practising  the  roughest  and 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS        133 

least-skilled  labour  than  with  those  engaged  in 
the  higher  forms  of  brain-work,  but  we  can  at 
all  events  set  ourselves  to  discover  what  is  the 
average  distribution  of  the  expenditure  of  men 
earning  .£1000  a  year,  and  can  afterwards  appeal 
to  the  hygienists  to  decide  for  us  what  kind  of 
food,  house-room,  and  recreation  is  essential  for 
a  man  who  makes  his  living  by  the  higher  activi- 
ties of  the  intellect.  A  very  close  connection 
between  economics  and  hygiene  is  essential  if  the 
division  of  our  subject  that  deals  with  consump- 
tion is  to  be  adequately  treated. 

So,  then,  a  scientific  study  of  the  economics  of 
the  household  would  fall  into  two  divisions — (i) 
an  endeavour  to  describe  the  industrial  develop- 
ment of  each  country  as  it  affects  family  life, 
house-room,  food,  and  clothes  ;  and  (2)  a  descrip- 
tive account  of  the  domestic  circumstances  and 
the  expenditure1  of  each  class  of  the  community 
at  the  present  time.  Under  each  of  these  headings 

1  There  is  an  assumption  here  which  needs  perhaps  some  discussion, 
i.e.  that  expenditure  or  consumption  of  goods  can  be  most  conveniently 
studied  on  the  basis  of  family  life.  This  is  obviously  the  case  with 
house-room,  food,  fuel,  cleanliness,  &c.,  less  so  with  regard  to  clothes 
or  recreation  ;  it  was  truer  of  the  past  than  of  the  present,  and  is 
truer  of  the  poor  than  of  the  rich.  In  some  classes,  e.g.  the  pro- 
fessional class,  where  marriage  is  commonly  delayed  and  a  consider- 
able period  may  intervene  between  the  end  of  education  and  the 
establishment  of  a  fresh  household,  it  may  be  necessary  to  supplement 
the  study  of  family  expenditure  by  a  consideration  of  the  standard  of 
living  of  unmarried  men  and  women.  Attempts,  too,  must  be  made  to 
deal  with  the  various  forms  of  institutional  life,  varying  from  prisons 
and  workhouses  on  the  one  hand  to  expensive  boarding-schools  and 
hotels  on  the  other.  But  when  all  these  necessary  deductions  have 
been  made,  it  remains  true  that  in  order  to  study  expenditure  we 
must  in  the  great  majority  of  cases  take  the  family  as  our  basis  of 
investigation.  Consumption  is  organised  on  a  family  basis. 


i34     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

special  sections  should  treat  domestic  service, 
the  work  of  woman  beyond  the  household,  and 
the  organisation  of  household  work  as  com- 
pared with  different  branches  of  industry  and 
administration.  Finally,  a  supplementary  section 
should  set  forth  the  practical  applications  of  the 
conclusions  arrived  at,  and  should  endeavour  to 
help  the  housewife  or,  it  may  be,  the  superin- 
tendent of  an  industrial  school,  college,  or  board- 
ing house  in  the  administration  of  the  income  at 
her  disposal. 

But  much  more  careful  investigation  into  the 
question  of  how  incomes  actually  are  spent  is  essen- 
tial before  we  can  deal  satisfactorily  with  the  even 
more  difficult  problem  of  how  they  ought  to  be 
spent.  And  there  is,  too,  another  factor  which 
must  be  taken  into  consideration.  Economists  in 
defining  wealth  commonly  admit  nowadays  that 
it  includes  collective  and  immaterial  well-being  of 
various  kinds.1  But  having  made  this  admission, 
they  straightway  put  it  aside  and  proceed  to 
discuss  wealth  as  though  it  consisted  exclusively 
of  material  exchangeable  commodities.  Yet  clearly 
the  real  income  of  a  family  is  increased  if  the 
children  have  easy  access  to  good  free  schools  or 
to  ample  open  spaces.  It  will  not  be  possible  to 
estimate  precisely  the  money  value  of  opportunities 
of  this  description.  But  we  should  at  least  notice 
their  presence  or  absence  for  each  class  and  for 
each  stage  of  national  development.  It  is  clear 
that  in  the  present  paper  no  attempt  can  be  made 

1  See  Marshall,  "  Principles,"  book  ii.  chap.  ii. v 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS        135 

to  deal  with  the  problems  of  the  economics  of 
expenditure  or  of  the  household  save  in  the 
merest  outline,  and  therefore  the  following  pages 
are  to  be  taken  simply  as  a  sketch  to  be  filled 
in  by  more  extensive  and  more  throughgoing 
investigation  later  on. 


II.    HISTORICAL  SKETCH   OF  THE   POSITION 
OF   THE   HOUSEHOLD   IN   ENGLAND 

English  industrial  history  has  been  divided 
into  three  main  epochs  with  intervening  periods 
of  transition.  These  are  (i)  the  mediaeval  period, 
(2)  the  period  extending  from  Elizabeth's  reign 
to  the  reign  of  George  III.,  and  (3)  the  modern 
period. 

In  the  first,  the  typical  economic  institutions 
are  the  manor  and  the  gild  ;  in  the  second, 
domestic  manufacture  and  convertible  husbandry 
are  predominant  ;  and  in  the  third  the  factory 
system  and  capitalist  farming  take  their  places.1 
Trade,  too,  undergoes  a  similar  evolution.  In  the 
first  period  it  is  intermunicipal  rather  than  inter- 
national. In  the  second  period,  within  each 
nation  trade  is  free  and  unfettered,  and  a  con- 
siderable amount  of  territorial  division  of  labour 
and  regional  specialisation  results.  But  external 
trade  is  regulated  by  governments  on  the  principles 
of  the  mercantile  system.  In  the  third  period, 
with  the  increase  and  improvement  of  the  means 

1   Ashley,  "  Economic  History,"  vol.  i.  part  ii.  p.  262. 


136      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

of  communication,  international  trade  becomes 
more  and  more  important,  markets  are  immensely 
widened,  and  the  economic  organisation  of  society 
reaches  the  complexity  possessed  by  it  to-day, 
which  reacts  in  many  half  comprehended  ways 
on  the  household  and  on  family  life. 

The  main  characteristics  of  these  divisions  of 
English  industrial  history  are,  on  the  whole,  clear 
and  well-marked.  But  the  transition  periods  are 
more  difficult  to  describe.  It  has  often  been 
pointed  out  that  the  two  industrial  revolutions,  as 
they  have  been  named  by  some  writers,  bear  a 
certain  resemblance  to  each  other.  Both  involve 
a  reorganisation  of  industry  which  results  in 
increased  productivity  on  the  one  hand,  but  in  the 
demoralisation  of  certain  classes  of  the  workers 
on  the  other  hand.  Both  therefore  require  a 
revision  of  the  system  of  providing  for  the  desti- 
tute. Both,  too,  produce  the  most  far-reaching 
effects  on  home-life  and  the  economy  of  the 
household,  and  influence  profoundly  the  position 
of  women.  Both,  too,  are  alike  in  that  it  is  not 
easy  to  fix  dates  to  the  periods  within  which  the 
revolution  in  industry  takes  place.1  But  roughly 

1  The  economic  historian  must  always  be  prepared  to  acquiesce  in 
a  certain  vagueness  in  the  matter  of  dates.  He  is  not  dealing  with 
definite  events,  such  as  battles  and  the  enactment  of  special  laws,  but 
rather  with  social  tendencies,  each  constituted  by  a  large  number  of 
small  events  ;  such  as,  for  instance,  the  replacement  of  hand  labour  by 
machinery,  the  appearance  of  limited  liability  companies  in  the  place 
of  the  single  employer,  or  the  determination  of  middle-class  girls  to 
earn  their  own  living  instead  of  remaining  dependent  on  father  or 
brothers.  Tendencies  such  as  these  appear  at  different  times  in 
different  industries  and  in  different  parts  of  the  country,  and  only  a 
misleading  precision  can  be  gained  by  any  mention  of  definite  dates. 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS        137 

we  may  regard  the  late  fifteenth  century  and  the 
early  part  of  the  sixteenth  as  a  time  of  stress  and 
strain,  due  to  the  appearance  of  new  methods  both 
in  agriculture  and  in  industry,  especially  in  the 
wool  trade  ;  and  in  the  same  way  the  end  of 
the  eighteenth  century  and  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  was  a  period  of  sudden  and  violent 
economic  transition.  In  both  cases  alike  the  changes 
in  agriculture  preceded  somewhat  the  changes 
in  industry,  and  the  revolution  made  itself  felt  in 
different  ways  and  at  different  times  in  the  various 
districts  of  the  country.  There  are  still  backward 
areas  in  the  south  of  England  and  in  the  west 
of  Scotland  where  life  has  been  very  little  affected, 
notwithstanding  trains  and  steam-engines,  by  the 
alterations  in  industry  which  have  produced  the 
roaring  mills  and  clattering  shipyards  of  Lanca- 
shire and  the  Clyde. 

The  task  before  us,  then,  is  to  sketch  as  clearly 
as  possible  from  the  scanty  material  available  the 
main  features  of  domestic  life  at  each  one  of  these 
epochs,  and  to  show  how  the  changes  in  industry 
reflected  themselves  in  the  life  of  the  household. 


(a)  THE  HOUSEHOLD  IN  THE  MEDIAEVAL  PERIOD 
(i)  The  Serf— his  Position  and  Domestic  Arrangements 

In  the  mediaeval  period,  outside  the  small  and 
scattered  towns,  the  prevailing  form  of  economic 
organisation  was  the  manor.  We  have  to  imagine 


138      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

the  surface  of  England  dotted  over  with  stretches 
of  cultivated  land,  with  areas  of  waste,  moorland 
or  woodland  intervening.  Each  stretch  of  arable 
land  was  cultivated  more  or  less  in  common  by 
groups  of  serfs,  who  lived  generally  in  one  long 
village  street,  with  the  church  and  the  lord's  hall 
near  at  hand.  Usually,  in  addition  to  the  arable 
land  worked  on  the  complicated  "  three-field " 
system  soon  to  be  described,  there  were  also  hay- 
meadows  down  by  the  river,  sometimes  permanent 
pasture  held  in  common,  while  the  waste  was 
available  for  extra  pasturage,  and  for  cutting  turf 
and  wood  for  fuel.  Each  serf  possessed,  besides, 
a  small  croft  attached  to  his  house,  and  sometimes 
an  orchard  and  rude  garden.  The  arable  land  was 
divided  into  three  large  fields,  not  shut  in  as  are 
our  fields  by  hedges,  but  lying  open.  Each  field, 
again,  was  partitioned  into  numbers  of  strips  more 
or  less  regular  in  shape,  and  each  serf  possessed 
a  certain  number  of  these,  not,  however,  all  lying 
together,  but  intermixed  "  mingle-mangle "  with 
the  holdings  of  his  neighbours.  He  was  not 
allowed  to  cultivate  these,  or  indeed  any  of  the 
land  save  his  own  tiny  croft,  as  he  pleased,  but 
was  compelled  to  follow  the  traditional  method  of 
farming  according  to  the  customs  of  his  manor. 
Usually  the  rotation  was  wheat  or  rye  in  the  first 
year,  oats  or  barley  in  the  second  year,  fallow  in 
the  third  year,  while  the  other  two  fields  followed 
the  same  course  a  year  and  two  years  later  ;  so 
that  in  each  year  one  field  was  fallow,  one  grew 
wheat  or  rye,  and  the  other  oats  or  barley.  The 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS        139 

animals  belonging  to  the  serfs  and  their  lord  were 
pastured  on  the  arable  fields  when  the  crops  were 
taken  off,  and  on  the  fallow  field.  The  lord  of 
the  manor  also  possessed  strips  in  the  common 
fields,  and  was  regarded  as  the  owner  of  the 
common  and  waste,  subject  to  the  pasturage  and 
fuel  rights  of  the  tenants.  He  did  not  receive 
rent  quite  as  we  understand  it,  but  each  serf  owed 
him  dues  calculated  in  labour,  in  kind,  and  occa- 
sionally in  money. 

For  instance,  on  the  manor  of  Tidenham,  in 
the  time  of  Edward  I.,  one  serf  worked  for  the 
lord  for  five  days  in  every  alternate  week  for  thirty- 
five  weeks  in  the  year,  two  and  a  half  days  every 
week  for  six  weeks  in  the  summer,  and  three  days 
every  week  for  eight  weeks  during  August  and 
September  (the  three  festival  weeks  of  Easter, 
Christmas,  and  Pentecost  were  holidays).  Then, 
in  addition  to  this  regular  weekly  work,  he  could 
also  be  required  for  extra  work,  commonly  called 
boon-works  or  precariae.  "  He  made  one  precaria 
called  churched,  and  he  ploughed  and  harrowed 
a  half  acre  for  corn  and  sowed  it  with  one  bushel 
of  corn  from  his  own  seed,  and  in  the  time  of 
harvest  he  had  to  reap  and  bind  and  stack  the 
produce,  receiving  one  sheaf  for  himself  on  account 
of  the  half  acre."  And  he  had  to  plough  one  acre 
for  oats.  In  addition,  there  were  dues  in  kind — one 
hen  at  Christmas,  five  eggs  at  Easter,  eight  gallons 
of  beer  at  every  brewing,  and  also  small  payments 
in  money,  commuted,  one  would  conjecture, 
for  payments  in  kind,  i.e.  one  penny  for  every 


140     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

yearling  pig,  and  one  halfpenny  for  those  only  of 
the  half  year.1 

In  other  cases  the  tenants  paid  dues  of  lambs, 
of  fish,  of  honey,  of  clews  of  net  yarn,  of  straw, 
&c.  One  of  the  tenants  of  the  great  monastic 
establishment  at  Glastonbury  had  to  find  thirty 
salmon,  "  each  as  thick  as  a  man's  fist  at  the  tail." ' 
A  curious  form  of  labour  due  is  described  in 
the  Boldon  Book.  The  tenants  of  certain 
manors  in  Durham  had  to  build  each  summer 
a  hunting-lodge  for  the  bishop  and  his  retinue 
when  they  came  to  take  their  pleasure  in  the 
moors  in  the  west  of  Durham. 

At  different  periods  and  in  different  districts 
the  subdivisions  of  the  tenants  vary  greatly,  and 
for  complete  details  the  reader  must  be  referred 
to  the  special  works  on  the  subject.  But  two 
classes  can  usually  be  distinguished — (i)  the 
villeins,  who  possessed  oxen  and  worked  the 
larger  holdings  (often  about  thirty  acres — called 
virgates  or  yard  lands)  ;  and  (2)  the  cotters, 
who  held  about  five  acres,  and  whose  domestic 
animals  consisted  of  pigs  and  poultry.  In 
addition  there  were  often  found  socmen,  who 
were  personally  free  ;  and,  at  the  other  end  of 
the  social  scale,  slaves,  who,  largely  through  the 
influence  of  the  Church,  were  manumitted  before 
the  end  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

The  most  striking  feature  about  the  manors  is 
that  each  was  almost  completely  self-supporting. 

1  Summarised  from  Seebohm,  "Village  Community,"  pp.  156-157. 
"  Gasquet,  "English  Monastic  Life,"  p.  197. 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS        141 

Each  manor  provided  corn,  meat,  eggs,  milk, 
cheese,  poultry,  &c.,  for  its  own  inhabitants. 
Fuel,  and  perhaps  game  and  rabbits,  came  from 
the  waste.  The  furniture  was  of  rude  wood,  and 
the  clothes  would  be  sheep-skin  and  coarse  cloth 
spun  and  woven  from  the  wool  grown  on  the 
sheep  that  were  fed  on  the  manor  lands.  The 
ordinary  serf  would  very  rarely  either  receive 
or  spend  coin  of  the  realm.  Salt  he  would  buy 
and  the  metal  pots  and  pans  used  for  cooking, 
and,  as  Ashley  suggests,  tar.1  But  the  greater 
amount  of  the  goods  required  for  himself  and 
his  family  would  be  produced  under  what  the 
economists  call  "  natural  economy/'  i.e.  they  were 
made  by  the  people  who  intended  to  use  them, 
directly,  without  the  intervention  of  money  or 
any  mechanism  of  exchange. 

Together  with  this  self-sufficiency  would  go 
a  considerable  amount  of  co-operation.  Econo- 
mists are  not  yet  agreed  as  to  the  precise  extent 
to  which  co-operation  was  used  in  the  manorial 
village.  But  \ve  know  that  tenants  frequently 
lent  their  oxen  to  one  another  to  make  up  the 
necessary  team  ;  that  in  some  of  the  Durham 
manors  there  was  a  communal  smith,  who  re- 
ceived payment  in  the  possession  of  a  strip  of 
land ;  and  that  the  tenants  owned  a  common 
oven.  It  was  customary,  too,  for  one  shepherd 
or  swineherd  to  guard  the  sheep  or  the  pigs 
of  the  whole  community.  The  village  mill,  when 

1   "  Economic  History,"  vol.  i. 


142      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

first  established,  was  also  a  common  boon  to  the 
whole  body  of  serfs,  but  later  on  the  obligation 
to  grind  their  corn  at  the  lord's  mill  and  to 
pay  the  dues  came  to  be  regarded  as  an  onerous 
burden. 

A  curious  and  important  person  on  the  medi- 
aeval estate  was  the  bee-keeper.  Particulars  are 
given  of  his  duties  and  rewards  in  one  Durham 
manor  by  the  Boldon  Book.1  He  does  no 
regular  weekly  work,  the  care  of  the  bees 
apparently  taking  the  place  of  this,  but  he  must 
take  part  with  the  other  serfs  in  the  boon-works 
necessary  at  harvest  and  other  times  of  pressure. 
As  honey  was  almost  the  only  source  of  sweetness 
in  early  mediaeval  cooking,  it  can  be  understood 
why  the  bee-keeper  ranked  only  a  little  below 
the  shepherd.  The  Boldon  Book,  unfortunately, 
since  its  aim  is  to  define  the  relations  between  the 
villeins  and  their  lord,  does  not  tell  us  whether 
he  superintended  the  bees  belonging  to  his  fel- 
low tenants.  On  the  analogy  of  the  shepherd  and 
swineherd,  we  should  assume  that  he  did. 

How,  then,  are  we  to  describe  the  domestic  life 
of  the  various  sections  of  rural  society  at  this 
time  ?  Unfortunately,  very  little  material  exists 
on  which-  to  draw  for  the  account  of  the  house- 
hold arrangements  of  the  serfs.  They  have  natu- 
rally left  no  account-books ;  they  enter  rarely 
into  the  literature  of  the  period  ;  there  are  no 
remains  of  their  houses  or  clothing,  and  it  is,  in 

1  Surtees  Society,  Boldon  Book,  p.  28. 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS        143 

fact,  far  from  easy  to  decide  how  they  did  live. 
But  it  seems  probable  that  a  rude  and  dirty 
plenty,  procured  by  long  hours  of  toilsome  open- 
air  labour,  was  the  prevailing  characteristic  of  the 
serf  household.  The  house  would  be  of  clay  or 
wattles  or  wood,  probably  without  windows — and 
those  certainly  unglazed — and  with  a  hole  in  the 
middle  of  the  roof  to  let  out  the  smoke,  the  fire 
being  placed  in  the  centre  of  the  floor.  The 
furniture  must  have  been  rough  but  solid,  its 
most  valuable  items  being  the  brass  or  iron 
cooking-pots.  On  the  other  hand,  I  do  not 
believe  that,  in  the  more  prosperous  villein  house- 
holds at  all  events,  the  level  of  domestic  comfort 
was  so  low  as  has  sometimes  been  represented. 
Rough  cloth  was  probably  woven  or  sometimes 
bought.  There  is  one  case  on  record  where,  in 
return  for  a  small  piece  of  land,  one  family  under- 
took to  do  the  weaving  for  another,  and  Gasquet 
mentions 1  that  to  the  common  Christmas  feast  on 
one  of  the  Glastonbury  manors  some  of  the 
tenants  brought  their  own  napkins,  "  if  he  wanted 
to  eat  off  a  cloth."  I  see  no  reason  to  doubt  that 
some  at  least  of  the  villein  households  were  pro- 
vided with  coarse  coverings  for  bed  and  table. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  seems  doubtful  whether  any 
form  of  artificial  light  was  commonly  used  in  the 
poorer  households.  The  food,  too,  would  show 
what  to  us  would  seem  strange  contrasts  of  plenty 
and  of  poverty.  It  would  include  neither  tea  nor 

1  "  English  Monastic  Life,"  p.  198. 


144     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

coffee,  neither  sugar  nor  spices,  nor  yet  potatoes. 
On  the  other  hand,  there  was  probably,  save  at 
times  of  famine,  a  sufficiency  of  bread,1  and  eggs 
and  dairy  produce  would  be  used  in  quantities 
now  quite  beyond  the  reach  of  the  ordinary 
working-man.  The  butter,  it  is  true,  was  not  of 
a  high  standard,  for  it  was  usually  liquid,  but  the 
children  must  have  had  milk  to  drink  and  cheese 
and  eggs  to  eat.  Even  the  poorest  serfs  appar- 
ently kept  a  few  fowls,  since  their  dues  are  so 
often  payable  in  eggs,  and  some  of  the  eggs  and 
the  chickens  would  be  available  for  family  con- 
sumption. But  their  meat  must  have  been  much 
poorer  than  ours.  Fresh  mutton  and  beef  were 
rarely  eaten,  except  in  the  case  of  animals  who 
had  died  a  natural  death.  The  others  were  much 
too  valuable  for  draught  purposes,  for  milk  or 
for  wool.  Among  the  maxims  of  an  old  agri- 
culturist of  the  thirteenth  century  we  find  the 
following  remark :  "  If  a  sheep  die  suddenly,  they 
put  the  flesh  in  water  for  so  many  hours  as  are 
between  midday  and  three  o'clock,  and  then  hang 
it  up,  and  when  the  water  is  drained  off  they  salt 
it  and  then  dry  it.  But  I  do  not  wish  you  to  do 
this."2  In  the  autumn,  animals  which  it  was 

1  The  English  were  famed  in  the  Middle  Ages  for  their  preference 
for  good  bread.     They  would  eat  no  bread 

"  That  beans  in  come, 
But  of  cocket  *  or  clerematyn  *  or  else  of  clean  wheat." 

— Piers  Plowman )  A.  vii.  292. 

2  Walter  of  Henley,  p.  29. 

*  Better  kinds  of  bread,  but  not  the  best  (wastel). 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS       145 

impossible  to  keep  during  the  winter,  owing  to  the 
absence  of  root-feeding,  were  killed  and  salted  down. 
Occasionally,  however,  fresh  pork  would  be  used, 
and  no  doubt  every  now  and  then  a  wild  beast  or 
bird  from  the  common  or  waste  would  find  its 
way  into  the  housewife's  iron  pot.  The  food,  then, 
would  be  rough  and  sometimes  unwholesome,  but 
on  the  other  hand  it  contained  many  most  desirable 
forms  of  nourishment  which  are  absent  from  the 
labourer's  diet  to-day,  and  which  are,  it  might  be 
observed,  those  specially  suitable  for  children.1 

The  fuel  used  was  wood  or  peat,  or  in  some 
cases  dried  cow-dung. 

On  the  whole,  then,  the  household  arrangements 
of  the  mediaeval  serf  were  primitive,  and  in  times 
of  famine  he  and  his  family  must  have  endured 
great  hardships.  The  winters,  too,  when  the 
tracks  were  deep  in  mud  and  artificial  light  was 
absent  or  scarce,  must  have  been  recurring  times 
of  considerable  suffering.  But  on  the  other  hand, 
fresh  air  and  easy  access  to  the  land  were  benefits 
hardly  valued  until  in  later  times  they  have  been 
lost  to  whole  sections  of  the  population. 

(2)  The  Lord  of  the  Manor — his  House  and 
Household 

There  is  more  material  available  for  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  household  of  the  lord  than  of  his  serf. 
Account-books,  directions  for  household  adminis- 

1  Apparently,  it  is  only  within  the  last  hundred  years  that  the  cow 
has  ceased  to  be  a  normal  possession  of  the  agricultural  labourer.  See 
Slater,  "  English  Peasantry  and  Common  Fields,"  pp.  122-128. 

K 


146     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

tration,  and  in  the  fifteenth  century  very  curious 
rhymed  rules  of  behaviour  and  of  precedence  are 
available.  Naturally,  however,  it  is  of  the  king's 
household  and  of  the  households  of  the  nobles 
and  of  the  great  monasteries  that  we  know  most. 
Very  little  can  now  be  discovered  of  the  details  of 
the  domestic  arrangements  of  the  master  in  posses- 
sion of  one  manor  only,  and  it  is  not  certain  that 
we  should  be  justified  in  supposing  that  what  we 
find  to  be  true  of  the  great  household  will  neces- 
sarily hold  also  for  the  smaller  one.  For  example, 
in  the  families  of  which  we  have  records  the  great 
majority  of  the  servants  are  men,  cooking  in  par- 
ticular being  in  the  Middle  Ages  a  masculine  voca- 
tion. But  is  it  safe  to  assume  that  the  same  would 
be  the  case  in  the  household  of  a  simple  knight  ? 
It  must  therefore  be  clearly  understood  that  what 
follows  has  reference  mainly  to  royal  and  noble 
families. 

The  domestic  buildings  of  all  manors  were  on 
a  more  or  less  uniform  plan.  They  were  grouped 
round  a  quadrangle,  one  side  of  which  consisted 
of  the  great  hall  where  dinner  was  served,  business 
transacted,  and  where  servants  and  the  humbler 
guests  slept  at  night.  The  door  was  at  one  end, 
usually  protected  by  screens,  behind  which  was 
another  door  leading  to  the  buttery,  and  above 
which  the  musicians'  gallery  was  often  placed. 
Opposite  the  door  was  a  raised  da'is,  where  stood 
the  table  reserved  for  the  master,  his  family,  and 
important  guests.  In  the  body  of  the  hall  dinner 
was  served  to  the  rest  of  the  household.  A  private 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS       147 

chamber  called  the  solar  or  bower,  reached  by  a 
staircase  either  inside  the  hall  or  placed  in  the 
quadrangle  outside,  was  kept  for  the  special  use  of 
the  lord  and  his  family.  There  occasionally  they 
took  meals,  though  it  was  regarded  as  a  sign  of 
luxurious  self-seeking  to  avoid  the  formality  and 
bustle  of  the  meals  in  the  great  hall.  In  the  solar, 
too,  beds  were  placed  for  important  guests,  and 
any  particularly  valuable  articles  of  furniture 
would  be  kept  there.  On  the  other  sides  of 
the  quadrangle  were  the  chapel,  granaries,  store- 
houses, dairies  and  bakehouses,  and  the  kitchen. 
This  was  often  placed  at  a  little  distance  to  guard 
against  fire.  The  cooking  was  usually  carried  on 
at  an  iron  grate  placed  in  the  middle  of  the  floor, 
and  pictures  show  us  that  sometimes  it  was  even 
done  in  the  open  air.  Refuse  was  carried  off  by 
an  open  drain  running  across  the  centre  of  the 
kitchen. 

As  an  illustration  let  me  quote  an  account  of  a 
typical  manor-house  of  the  twelfth  century.  "  The 
manor-house  of  Ardleigh  consisted  of  a  hall  with 
bower  annexed.  Also  a  kitchen,  a  stable,  a  bake- 
house, two  stores  for  corn  (granges)  and  a  servants' 
house.  In  the  hall  were  two  moveable  benches, 
a  fixed  table,  and  a  buffet."  1 

In  course  of  time  other  rooms  were  added,  and 
the  furniture  and  equipment  became  more  elabo- 
rate. But  until  Elizabeth's  reign  the  great  hall 
where  master  and  servants  dined  together  was  the 
central  feature  in  the  wealthy  English  home. 

1  Eddy,  "English  House,"  p.  133. 


148     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

The  food  was  derived  from  the  manor,  and 
purchases  were  only  made  of  such  things  as  could 
not  be  produced  in  England,  notably  red  wine,1 
spices,  almonds  and  rice,  all  much  used  in  mediaeval 
cookery.  Sugar,  too,  would  be  bought,  when  it 
replaced  honey  for  sweetening  purposes.  But  the 
corn,  meat,  milk,  cheese,  and  eggs  would  be  all 
home-grown,  and  as  it  was  easier  in  the  state  of 
transport  at  that  time  to  bring  the  family  to  the 
food  than  the  food  to  the  family,  part  of  the  duties 
of  housekeeping  consisted  in  so  arranging  the 
sojourn  of  the  household  as  to  draw  food-supplies 
from  each  manor  in  the  most  convenient  way. 
The  great  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  Robert  Grossetete, 
gives  elaborate  directions  on  this  head  to  a  widowed 
friend  of  his,  Margaret,  Countess  of  Lincoln. 

"  Every  year  at  Michaelmas  when  you  know  the 
measure  of  all  your  corn,  then  arrange  your  sojourn 
for  the  whole  of  that  year  and  for  how  many 
weeks  in  each  place  according  to  the  seasons  of  the 
year  and  the  advantages  of  the  country  in  flesh 
and  in  fish,  and  do  not  in  any  wise  burden  by  debt 
or  long  residence  the  places  where  you  sojourn. 

11  I  advise  that  at  two  seasons  of  the  year  you 
make  your  principal  purchases,  that  is  to  say,  your 
wines,  your  wax,  and  your  wardrobe."  : 

And  there  follows  a  list  of  the  fairs  recom- 
mended by  the  pious  bishop. 

The  materials  of  mediaeval  food,  then,  would  be 


1  England  at   that  time   possessed   her   own   vineyards,   e.g.    near 
Gloucester,  and  produced  white  wine. 

2  Rules  of  S.  Robert  as  given  in  "  Walter  of  Henley,"  p.  145. 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS        149 

similar  to  the  diet  of  the  serfs  already  described, 
but  would  be  used  in  greater  plenty  and  would  be 
supplemented  by  luxuries  imported  from  the  East 
and  bought  at  the  fairs.  If  we  keep  in  mind  these 
conditions,  as  well  as  the  leisure  and  the  large 
supply  of  labour  available,  we  shall  understand 
why  mediaeval  cooking  was  so  elaborate  ;  for,  con- 
trary to  ordinary  opinion,  it  was  distinguished  by 
a  large  number  of  complicated  made  dishes. 
Small  birds  were  commonly  roasted,  but  other 
forms  of  meat  were  stewed  or  minced.  They 
would  in  this  way  both  be  more  easily  dealt  with 
at  the  open  fire  of  the  mediaeval  kitchen,  and  more 
easily  served  in  the  mediaeval  dining-room,  where 
knives  and  spoons  were  the  only  implements  in 
common  use.  Moreover,  there  was  what  seems  to 
us  an  extraordinary  liking  for  violent  and  mixed 
flavourings  and  brilliant  colouring.  Bucknade, 
for  instance,  was  made  of  meat  hewn  in  gobbets, 
pounded  almonds,  raisins,  sugar,  cinnamon,  cloves, 
ginger,  onions,  salt  and  fried  herbs,  thickened 
with  rice-flour  and  coloured  yellow  with  saffron. 
Here,  again,  is  the  recipe  for  mortrews,  a  dish 
mentioned  in  Chaucer's  "  Canterbury  Tales." 

"  Take  hennes  and  pork  and  seethe  them  to- 
gether. Take  the  flesh  of  the  hennes  and  of  the 
pork  and  hack  it  small  and  grind  it  all  to  dust. 
Take  bread  y-grated,  and  add  thereto  and  temper 
it  with  the  self-broth  l  and  mix  it  with  yolks  of 
eggs,  and  cast  thereon  powder  fort,2  and  boil  it 
and  do  thereto  powder  of  ginger,  saffron,  and  salt, 

1  Broth  in  which  the  meat  had  been  boiled.  2  Pepper. 


150     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

and  look  that  it  is  standing,1  and  flour  it  all  with 
powder  of  ginger."  The  lavish  use  of  eggs,  pork, 
and  chickens  in  this  recipe  could  be  paralleled  in 
many  others,  and  is  evidently  to  be  connected  with 
the  custom  of  receiving  manorial  dues  in  kind  at 
stated  intervals.  Hundreds  of  eggs  would  be  sent 
in  by  the  tenants  at  Easter,  and  the  problem  of 
the  housekeeper  would  not  be  how  to  lessen 
the  consumption  of  eggs  in  order  to  keep  down 
the  bills,  but  how  to  get  through  those  in  store 
before  they  were  hopelessly  spoiled. 

For  the  earlier  period  menus  are  not  available, 
but  a  curious  rhymed  treatise  on  servants'  duties 
dating  from  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
entitled  "  John  Russell's  Boke  of  Nurture,"  has  been 
reprinted  by  the  Early  English  Lent  Society2  in  the 
volume  entitled  ll  Meals  and  Manners  of  the  Olden 
Time,"  and  from  it  I  extract  the  following  : — 

Furst  set  forth  mustard  and  brawne  of  boore,  the  wild  swine, 
Suche  pottage  as  the  cooke  hath  made  of  herbis,  spice, 

and  wine, 

Beef,  mutton,  stewed  feysaund,  swan  with  the  chawdyn 3 
Capoun,    pigge,   venisoun   bake,    leche    lombard,4   fritter, 

viant  fine, 

And  then  a  soteltie.5 
Maydon  Marie  that  holy  Virgin 
And  Gabrielle  greeting  her  with  an  ave. 

1  Stiff.  2  "  Meals  and  Manners  of  the  Olden  Time,"  p.  164. 

3  Kind  of  sauce. 

4  Pork,  eggs,  cloves,  currants,  dates,  sugar  boiled  in  a  bladder,  cut 
into  strips  and  served  with  hot  rich  sauce. 

6  A  soteltie  was  an  elaborate  confection  of  pastry  painted  or 
adorned  with  paper  to  represent  a  saint  or  a  figure  of  spring, 
summer,  &c. 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS       151 

This  is  followed  by  two  other  courses  rather 
lighter  in  character,  though  still  including  venison, 
peacocks,  quails,  &c.,  and  then  comes  dessert  : 

After  this  delicatis  mo, 

Blanderellc  or  pepins  with  caraway  in  confite, 
Wayfurs  to  eat,  hypocras l  to  drink  with  delite. 

The  service  in  the  wealthy  mediaeval  manor  was 
as  elaborate  as  the  cooking,  at  all  events  in  the 
later  period.  The  Bishop  of  Lincoln  finds  it  neces- 
sary to  warn  the  Countess  of  Lincoln  not  to  permit 
slovenliness  among  her  retainers.  She  is  not  to 
allow  "old  tabards,  and  soiled  herigauts,  and  imi- 
tation short-hose."  But  even  this  widow  lady  is 
served  with  considerable  pomp.  "  Command  that 
your  panter  2  with  the  bread  and  your  butler  3  with 
the  cup,  come  before  you  to  the  table  foot  by  foot 
before  grace  and  that  three  valets  be  assigned  by 
the  marshal  each  day  to  serve  the  high  table  and 
the  two  tables  at  the  side  with  drink.  And  at 
each  course  call  the  servers  to  go  to  the  kitchen, 
and  they  themselves  to  go  always  before  your 
seneschal  as  far  as  you  until  the  dishes  be  set 
before  you,  and  see  that  all  servants  with  meats  go 
orderly  and  without  noise  to  one  part  and  another 
of  the  hall  to  those  who  shall  be  assigned  to 
divide  the  meats,  so  that  nothing  be  placed  or 
served  disorderly."  4 

In  the  "  Boke  of  Nurture,"  which  refers  of  course 


1  Spiced  wine. 

2  Panter  and  pantry,  from  pain.  3  Butler  =  bottler. 
4  Rules  of  S.  Robert  in  "  Walter  of  Henley,"  pp.  1 38-140, 


152      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

to  a  much  later  period,  the  service  is  even  more 
elaborate,  and  we  gather  indeed  that  the  dinner 
was  a  social  function  at  which  all  classes  of  the 
community  met  together.  Even  the  poorest  were 
not  forgotten,  as  there  was  a  special  officer  whose 
business  it  was  to  distribute  alms  of  broken 
meats  to  the  beggars  waiting  at  the  door.  The 
rules  of  precedence  were  most  elaborate,  and  the 
serving  seems  on  special  occasions  to  have  risen 
almost  to  the  rank  of  a  solemn  ritual.  In  addition, 
dinner  was  accompanied  by  music  and  sometimes 
enlivened  at  intervals  by  pageants  and  shows. 

J   Domestic  service  in  these  great  households  was 
ery  different  from  what  it  is  to-day.     There  was, 
i   the  first  place,  no  fixed  line  drawn   as   there 
>    now  between  the   menial  and  the  non-menial 
Classes  of  the   community.     The  higher  servants 
were  often  people  of  nearly  the  same  social    rank 
as    those    whom    they    served.      Sir    William    de 
Mortimer  was  the  head-steward  of  Bishop  Swin- 
field,  Sir  Gilbert  Brydges  the  steward  of  Gloucester 
Abbey.1     Young  men  who  entered  the  service  of 
a  lord  might   one  day  be   called   on   to  carve  or 
serve  wine,  and  the  next  day  might  sit   at   meat 
in  the  same  room.2 

Through  the  account-books  and  the  household 
ordinances  of  the  period,  we  can  trace  four  grades 
of  household  servants — squires  or  gentlemen,  valets 
or  yeomen,  grooms,  and  pages.  The  last  grade 
had  been  recently  introduced  into  the  royal  house- 

1  Webb,  "  Essay  on  Gloucester  Abbey,"  p.  13. 

2  "  Meals  and  Manners,"  p.  74. 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS        153 

hold  in  Edward  IV.'s  time,  and  they  did  not  eat 
in  hall.  "  A  page  etyth  in  his  office  or  with  his 
next  fellow,  not  in  the  halle  at  noe  place,  taking 
dayly  one  lofe,  one  messe  of  great  meate,  half  a 
gallon  of  ale  ;  one  reward  quarterly  in  the  count- 
ing-house, twenty  pence  of  clothing  when  the 
household  hathe  at  every  one  of  the  four  feasts, 
one  napron  of  one  elle  and  part  of  the  King's 
great  rewards  given  yearly  amongst  them  in 
household." l 

The  last  quotation  illustrates  also  the  method 
of  remuneration.  The  money  received  was  a 
very  minor  and  unimportant  factor.  The  ser- 
vants were  paid  mostly  in  kind,  and  the  share 
of  each  in  food,  fuel,  and  clothing  is  very  fully 
and  carefully  stated.  The  chief  porter  of  the 
Abbey  of  Gloucester,  for  instance,  had  a  chamber 
next  to  the  abbey  gate.  His  weekly  allowance 
was  three  white  loaves,  called  myches,  and  two 
called  holyers,  with  seven  loaves  of  squire  bread  ; 
for  ale  every  quarter  33.  4d.  On  every  flesh  or 
fish  day  he  had  a  mess  of  flesh  or  fish  of  the 
first  course,  as  much  as  was  set  before  two  monks. 
He  had  a  gown  every  year  of  the  suit  of  the 
gentlemen  of  the  Lord  Abbot,  and  in  addition 
135.  4d.  per  annum.  These  fixed  rations  of  food 
clothing  &c.,  are  called  livery,  a  term  now  re- 
stricted to  clothing  alone. 

It  is  noticeable  that  these  servants  are  almost 
all  men.  Washerwomen  (lotrices)  are  women, 
and  there  are  occasionally  notices  of  young  girls 

1  Libes  Niges  Dornus,  p.  65. 


154     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

in  attendance  on  the  lady  of  the  house.  But  so 
far  as  our  information  goes,  cooking  and  cleaning 
and  serving  are  carried  on  by  men,  though  men- 
tion is  made  of  women  pastry-cooks  who  in 
monasteries,  to  avoid  scandal,  had  to  be  accom- 
modated in  a  separate  kitchen,  called  the  pudding- 
house.1  But  in  the  Middle  Ages  domestic  service 
was  not,  as  it  is  now,  regarded  as  a  menial  occupa- 
tion to  be  left,  save  in  some  of  its  higher  branches, 
exclusively  to  women. 

I  can  find  no  trace  at  this  period  of  any  diffi- 
culty in  obtaining  service.  Bishop  Grossetete 
assures  the  Countess  of  Lincoln  that  she  can 
easily  obtain  servers  if  she  needs  them,  and  the 
young  men  addressed  in  the  rhyming  exhorta- 
tions preserved  in  "  Meals  and  Manners  "  evidently 
regard  it  as  promotion  almost  beyond  their  hopes 
to  become  members  of  a  lord's  household. 
Whether  this  would  be  equally  the  case  if  we  had 
information  about  the  smaller  households,  it  is 
not  easy  to  say.  But  when  we  remember  that 
the  alternatives  were  laborious  and  monotonous 
work  at  agriculture  or  the  chance  of  finding  a 
place  in  the  gilds  or  fraternities  which  monopolised 
the  trade  in  towns  at  that  period,  we  can  believe 
that  the  plentiful  fare,  the  lively  society,  and  the 
not  too  strenuous2  work  required  of  a  serving- 

1  Gasquet,  "  English  Monastic  Life,"  p.  211. 

2  The  maintenance  of  a  large  retinue  was  one  of  the  easiest  ways 
available  for  indicating  the  possession  of  surplus  wealth.     This  fact, 
coupled  with   the  almost  absurd  over-elaboration   of  the  details   of 
serving,  incline  me  to  believe  that  in  the  mediaeval   castle  servants 
were  numerous  and  not  overworked. 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS       155 

groom  or  yeoman  would  be  regarded  as  a  prize 
worth  striving  for  and  worth  keeping. 

It  would  be  interesting,  had  I  more  space  at 
my  disposal,  to  discuss  mediaeval  town  life  and 
the  domestic  arrangements  of  the  monasteries, 
which  are  very  fully  and  interestingly  described  in 
Abbe  Gasquet's  book,  "  English  Monastic  Life." 
But  I  must  content  myself  solely  with  one  or  two 
extracts  illustrating  the  household  furniture  of  the 
mediaeval  town-dwellers. 

In  1303,  a  certain  Alan  de  Bedeford,  a 
baker  of  London,  was  sold  up  for  arrears  of 
taxes,  and  the  following  were  the  goods  seized 
by  the  inexorable  tax-gatherer  :  "  One  brass 
pot  weighing  18  Ibs.,  value  2S.  6d.,  and  another 
brass  pot  weighing  13  Ibs.,  value  2 id.,  and  one 
kettle  value  i4d.,  the  total  whereof  amounts  to 
5s.  Sd."1 

In  1337,  an  inventory  was  preserved  of  the 
goods  of  a  felon.  It  was  probably  exhaustive, 
and  may  therefore  be  taken  as  indicating  with 
tolerable  precision  the  standard  of  household 
comfort  of  a  London  burgess  at  that  time.  It 
is  too  long  to  quote  in  full  (the  list  of  garments 
in  particular  is  rather  tedious),  but  it  is  interesting 
to  note  that  it  includes  a  mattress,  three  feather- 
beds,  five  cushions,  six  blankets,  seven  linen- 
sheets,  four  table-cloths,  six  whole  brass  pots  of 
varying  value  and  one  broken  one,  one  candle- 
stick and  two  plates  of  metal,  two  basins  and 

1  Riley,  "  Memorials  of  London,"  p.  48. 


156     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

one   washing-vessel,    a   spit,   a   frying-pan,   and  a 
funnel.1 

Further  study  of  wills  and  inventories  would 
yield  a  fresh  store  of  information  with  regard  to 
mediaeval  household  equipment,  and  might  not 
improbably  upset  some  preconceived  ideas  as  to 
the  ordinary  standard  of  life  at  that  time. 


(b)  THE   POSITION  OF  THE   HOUSEHOLD   FROM   THE 
FIFTEENTH  TO  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURIES 

(i)  The  First  Industrial  Revolution  and  its  Effects 

The  fifteenth  century  and  the  beginning  of  the 
sixteenth  century  were  marked  by  great  economic 
changes.  The  manorial  system,  modified  before 
this  period  by  the  gradual  commutation  of  labour 
dues  and  especially  by  the  catastrophe  of  the 
Black  Death,  was  replaced  on  the  one  hand  by 
enclosures  for  sheep-farming  and  on  the  other  by 
convertible  husbandry,  when  the  farmer  possessed 
or  rented  his  own  separate  holding  and  managed 
it  as  he  pleased,  using  the  same  land  alternately 
for  pasturage  and  as  arable.2  At  the  same  time, 
the  gild  organisation  of  industry  was  replaced 
by  the  system  commonly  known  as  domestic 
manufacture.  This  spread  largely  in  the  country 

1  Riley,  "Memorials  of  London,"  p.  199.     There  is,  unfortunately, 
no  indication  of  the  social  standing  of  this  felon,  Hugh  le  Bevere  by 
name.     The  list  of  clothes  suggests  that  he  was  fairly  well-to-do,  in 
which  case  his  equipment  of  cooking  and  table  utensils  is  certainly 
meagre.     It  is  curious  that  pottery  is  not  mentioned  ;  it  can  hardly  be 
urged  that  although  in  use  it  was  too  unimportant  for  a  place  in  the 
inventory,  since  room  is  found  for  one  small  canvas  bag,  value  id. 

2  Hence  the  name  convertible  husbandry. 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS       157 

districts,  and  profoundly  influenced  home  life  and 
the  position  of  women.  At  the  same  time  both 
home  and  foreign  trade  greatly  increased,  and 
"  natural  economy  "  was  almost  entirely  replaced 
by  "  money  economy/'  the  necessities  of  life  being 
no  longer  produced  by  the  family  for  their  own 
use  ;  men  worked  instead  for  payment,  and  then 
with  the  money  so  earned  bought  in  the  market 
the  goods  they  required.1  These  changes,  like 
the  corresponding  changes  at  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  brought  greater  wealth  and 
pomp  to  some  classes,  increased  comfort  to  the 
bulk  of  the  people,  but  called  into  existence  a 
new  class  of  landless  labourers,  whose  needs  and 
importunities  finally  led  to  the  establishment  of 
the  poor-law. 

It  would  require  a  volume  to  describe  how 
these  changes  reflected  themselves  in  the  daily 
life  of  the  people,  and  at  present  I  must  content 
myself  with  noting  very  briefly  the  main  effects 
of  this  first  industrial  revolution. 

In  the  country  two  classes  appeared:  the 
labourer,  who,  although  he  might  possess  a  small 
piece  of  land  of  his  own 2  or  at  the  least  had 
grazing  rights  over  a  neighbouring  common,  yet 

1  This  is,  of  course,  a  very  summary  statement  of  changes  which  it 
took  centuries  to  bring  about.     On  the  one  hand,  money  economy 
existed  in  the  mediaeval  town  ;  on  the  other,  subsistence  farming  con- 
tinued in  England  to  some  extent  until  within  a  hundred  years  ago. 
Yet   it   is   roughly  true  that  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries 
production  for  the  market  and  not  for  use  markedly  and   suddenly 
increased. 

2  By  an  Act  of  1589,  it  was  ordained  that  four  acres  of  land  should 
be  attached  to  every  cottage.      Cf.  Hasbach.     "  English  Agricultural 
Labourer,"  p.  40. 


158      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

depended  for  his  livelihood  on  the  wages  paid 
by  his  master.  So  far  I  have  not  discovered 
any  reliable  source  of  information  with  regard 
to  the  family  expenditure  of  this  class.1 

Next  there  was  the  farmer  either  renting  or 
owning  a  farm.  Very  often  farming  would  be 
combined  with  spinning  or  weaving  wool.  Agri- 
culture of  this  kind,  partly  for  subsistence  and 
partly  for  the  market,  supplemented  by  the  prac- 
tice of  domestic  industries,  remained  the  domi- 
nant type  in  England  until  the  introduction  of 
capitalist  farming  in  the  eighteenth  century,  and 
indeed  can  still  be  found  in  backward  districts. 
The  part  played  in  it  by  women  can  be  illus- 
trated by  a  curious  account  of  the  duties  of  the 
wife  of  a  husbandman  given  in  Fitzherbert's  "  Book 
of  Husbandry"  (1534). 

"  First  in  a  morning  when  thou  art  waked  and 
purposiste  to  rise,  lyfte  up  thy  hands  and  blesse 
thee  .  .  .  And  when  thou  art  up  and  redy,  then 
first  sweep  thy  house,  dress  up  thy  dysshe-board, 
and  sette  all  things  in  good  order  within  thy 
house.  Milk  thy  kye,  suckle  thy  calves,  sye  up 
thy  mylke,  take  up  thy  children  and  array  them, 
and  provide  for  thy  husband's  brekefaste,  dinner, 
souper,  and  thy  children  and  servants,  and  take 
thy  part  with  them.  And  to  ordayne  corn  and 
malt  to  the  myll,  to  bake  and  brue  withal  whanne 
need  is.  And  meete  it  to  the  mill  and  fro  the 
mill,  and  see  that  thou  have  thy  measure  again 

1  See  Cunningham,    "  English   Industry   and  Commerce,"   vol.  ii. 
p.  40  (4th  ed.). 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS        159 

beside  the  toll  or  else  the  miller  dealeth  not  truly 
with  the  or  els  thy  corn  is  not  drye  as  it  should 
be.  Thou  must  make  butter  or  cheese  whan  thou 
maist,  serve  thy  swyne  both  morning  and  evening, 
and  give  thy  poleyn l  meat  in  the  morning,  and 
when  tyme  of  the  year  cometh,  thou  must  take 
heed  how  thy  duckes  henne  and  geese  do  lay  and 
to  gather  up  their  eggs  and  when  they  wax 
brodie  to  get  them.  .  .  .  And  in  the  beginning  of 
March  or  a  little  before  is  time  for  a  wife  to  make 
her  garden  and  to  gette  as  many  good  seedes  and 
herbes  as  she  can  and  specially  such  as  be  good 
for  the  potte  and  to  eat.  [Then  come  lengthy 
and  technical  directions  for  sowing  and  working 
up  flax  and  hemp]  and  thereof  may  they  make 
shetes,  bordclothes,  towels,  shirts,  smocks  and 
such  other  necessaries  and  therefore  let  thy  distaff 
be  always  ready  for  a  pastime  that  thou  be  not 
idle.  ...  It  is  convenient  for  a  husband  to  have 
shepe  of  his  owne  for  many  causes,  and  then  maye 
his  wife  have  part  of  the  woll  to  make  her  hus- 
band and  herself  some  clothes.  And  at  the  very 
least  way  she  may  have  the  locks  of  the  sheep 
either  to  make  clothes  or  blankets  or  coverlets  or 
both.  And  if  she  have  no  wool  of  her  own,  she 
may  take  wool  to  spyn  of  cloth-makers  and  by 
that  means  she  may  have  a  convenient  living  .  .  . 
It  is  a  wife's  occupation  to  wynowe  all  manner 
of  corns,  to  make  malt,  to  wasshe  and  wrynge,  to 
make  haye,  shere  corn,  and  in  tiyme  of  nede  to 
help  her  husband  to  fyll  the  muck-wain  or  dung- 

1  Poultry. 


160      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

cart,  drive  the  plough,  to  load  hay,  corn  or  such 
other.  And  to  go  or  ride  to  the  market,  to  sell 
butter,  cheese,  eggs,  chekyns,  capons,  hennes,  pigs, 
geese,  and  all  manner  of  corns,  and  also  to  bye 
all  manner  of  necessary  things  belonging  to  the 
household  and  to  make  a  trewe  reckoning  and 
account  to  her  husband  what  she  hath  paid.  And 
if  the  husband  go  to  the  market  to  bye  or  sell,  as 
they  oft  do,  he  then  to  show  his  wife  in  like 
manner." 

It  is  interesting  to  note  in  this  extract  the 
mixture  of  natural  and  money  economy,  the 
appearance  of  domestic  manufactures,  and  the 
energetic  co-operation  of  the  wife  in  the  work 
of  the  farm.  The  sixteenth  century  would  have 
had  little  sympathy  with  the  sentimentalists  who 
hold  that  womanhood  in  itself  is  a  burden  so  heavy 
that  all  active  occupations  should  be  forbidden  to 
the  married  woman. 

According  to  Harrison  l  the  standard  of  comfort 
among  the  agricultural  classes  rose  markedly  at 
this  time.  Chimneys  became  common,  pewter 
plates  and  silver  or  tin  spoons  are  used  in  place 
of  "  tinn  platters  and  wooden  spoons."  A  farmer 
thinks  his  gains  very  small  "  if  he  have  not  a  fair 
garnish  of  pewter  on  his  cupboard,  with  so  much 
more  in  odd  vessels  going  about  the  house,  three 
or  four  feather-beds,  so  manie  coverlids  or  carpets 
of  tapestry,  a  silver  salt,  a  bowl  for  wine  if  not 
a  whole  nest,  and  a  dozen  of  spoons  to  furnish  up 
the  suit." 

1   «'  Description  of  England,"  p.  238 /; 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS        161 

Food,  too,  according  to  Harrison,  was  plentiful 
and  varied.  The  increase  in  pasture  farming  and 
the  decrease  in  arable  land  had  made  meat  (often, 
it  is  true,  salted)  cheaper  and  corn-stuffs  dearer,  at 
least  in  proportion.  This  tendency  can  be  traced 
in  the  menus  and  accounts  of  the  period,  and 
certainly  appears  in  the  following  extract : 1  "  The 
artificers  and  husbandmen  make  greatest  account 
of  such  food  as  they  may  soonest  come  by  and 
have  it  quickliest  ready.  Their  food  also  consisteth 
principallie  in  beef  and  such  meat  as  the  butcher 
selleth  ;  that  is  to  saie,  mutton,  veal,  lamb,  pork, 
whereof  he  findeth  great  store  in  the  markets 
adjoining,  besides  souse,2  brawn,  bacon,  fruit,  pies 
of  fruit,  fowles  of  sundrie  sort,  cheese,  butter,  eggs." 
A  little  lower  down  he  notes  that  venison  and  a  cup 
of  wine  are  luxuries  reserved  for  special  occasions. 

It  is  not  easy  to  estimate  the  worth  of  Harrison's 
testimony  to  the  social  habits  of  a  class  which  he 
did  not  probably  know  intimately.  It  is  certain, 
too,  that  he  was  not  speaking  here  of  the  poorest 
class  of  labourers,3  those  who  later  recruited  the 
class  eligible  for  poor-law  relief.  But  even  making 
these  admissions,  his  words  seem  to  be  evidence 
of  a  standard  of  comfort  higher  in  some  respects 
than  could  be  attained  by  the  corresponding 
classes  to-day.  Chicken,  for  instance,  practically 
never  forms  part  of  the  dietary  of  even  the  well- 
to-do  urban  artisan  of  the  present  time. 

In  the  organisation  of  the  wealthy  household, 

1   Op.  cit.,  vol.  i.  p.  150.  2  Pickled  pork. 

3  This  class  is  never  described  by  him. 

L 


162      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

the  economic  changes  of  the  time  produced  im- 
portant alterations.  The  increase  in  buying  and 
selling  made  the  landlords  more  anxious  to  dis- 
pose of  their  surplus  produce  in  the  markets,  and 
on  the  other  hand  provided  new  luxuries  on  which 
money  could  be  spent.  There  resulted  a  tendency, 
which  can  be  traced  in  all  the  household  books  of 
the  period,  to  limit  the  numbers  of  servants  and 
retainers.  At  the  same  time  there  was  a  growing 
desire  for  privacy,  and  a  widening  gulf  between 
the  upper  and  the  lower  classes  of  society.  Hence 
the  hall,  the  general  assembly-place  for  the  entire 
household,  lost  its  importance  ;  dining-rooms  and 
withdrawing-rooms  for  the  exclusive  use  of  the 
family  and  guests,  took  its  place,  and  the  servants 
were  relegated  to  their  own  part  of  the  house. 
Partly  as  cause  of  this,  partly  as  effect,  domestic 
administration  ceases  to  be  a  career  for  men  of 
better  social  rank,  a  tendency  which  would  of 
course  be  intensified  by  the  fact  that  in  commerce, 
in  literature,  in  exploration,  &c.,  new  opportunities 
were  perpetually  being  opened  up.  Hence  Eliza- 
beth's reign  is  a  turning-point  for  the  history  both 
of  domestic  service  and  of  domestic  architecture. 
It  was  probably  about  this  time  that  women  super- 
seded men  as  cooks  and  cleaners,  and  it  is  certain 
that  the  increase  in  Elizabeth's  reign  of  industries 
worked  for  profit  must  have  diminished  the  pro- 
duction for  use  in  the  household  of  many  articles 
of  common  domestic  utility.1 

1  See  Cunningham,  ii.  p.  78,   "  Issue  of  Patents  for  making  Soap 
and  Vinegar." 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS       163 


( 2 )  Life  in  the  Stuart  Period 

For  150  years  after  the  death  of  Elizabeth  no 
startling  changes  occur  in  the  organisation  of  the 
household  or  in  its  economic  relations.  The 
marked  feature  of  this  period  is  the  existence  of 
domestic  manufactures,  engaging  the  head  of  the 
household  and  his  family,  one  or  two  apprentices, 
and  sometimes  a  journeyman  or  two.  It  was 
common,  indeed  all  but  universal,  for  the  small 
master  manufacturers  to  board  and  lodge  their 
employees,  as  it  was  common  for  farmers  to  board 
and  lodge  their  labourers.  The  larger  households 
carried  on  at  home  many  of  the  operations — 
baking,  brewing,  washing,  jam-making — which  have 
now  passed  to  the  factory.  There  was  a  steady 
growth  of  domestic  luxury  and  of  convenience. 
The  development  of  commerce  made  available  new 
commodities,  such  as  tea,  coffee,  cocoa,  and  thereby 
influenced  social  life.  Furniture  became  more 
elegant,  and  perhaps  at  the  same  time  more  stuffy. 

It  would  require  much  reading  and  research 
to  elaborate  the  details  of  this  progress,  and  for 
our  present  purpose  it  is  hardly  necessary,  as  it 
involved  alteration  in  particulars  but  not  in  the 
general  organisation  of  household  economy.  The 
difficulties  of  finding  domestic  servants  begin, 
however,  to  make  themselves  felt,  and  are  amus- 
ingly discussed  by  such  writers  as  Defoe  and 
Swift.  It  is  at  some  time  during  this  period  that 
houses  are  first  built  in  terraces  and  squares  on 


164     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

an  identical  plan  for  letting  purposes.  But  there 
are  no  sweeping  changes,  such  as  mark  the  eighty 
years  before  the  accession  of  Victoria. 

(3)  The  Influence  of  the  Second  Industrial  Revolution 
on  the  Home 

In  the  last  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  agri- 
culture and  industry  were  once  more  revolution- 
ised, the  former  by  the  introduction  of  capitalist 
farming,  the  rotation  of  crops,  and  the  further 
enclosure  of  common  fields,  commons,  and  wastes, 
the  latter  by  the  introduction  of  machinery  and 
mechanical  motor  power.  For  a  detailed  ac- 
count of  the  enormous  changes  consequent  on 
these  new  methods  of  production,  I  must  refer 
the  reader  to  the  special  treatises  on  the  subject,1 
but  we  must  spend  some  time  in  considering  the 
ways  in  which  the  home,  family  life,  and  the  posi- 
tion of  women  have  been  modified  by  these  in- 
dustrial developments. 

In  the  first  place,  the  introduction  of  machinery 
meant  the  growth  of  the  factory  system,  and  in 
consequence  work  left  the  home,  which  ceased  to 
be  the  institution  where  productive  industry  was 
carried  on,  and  became  instead  a  centre  solely  of 
emotional  and  domestic  life.  At  the  same  time, 
the  alteration  in  the  land  system  made  it  impos- 

1  e.g.  Slater,  "English  Peasantry  and  the  Enclosure  of  the  Common 
Fields."  Hasbach,  "  History  of  the  English  Agricultural  Labourer." 
Toynbee,  "The  Industrial  Revolution."  Hobson,  "Evolution  of 
Capitalism." 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS       165 

sible  any  longer  to  combine  home  weaving,  spin- 
ning, &c.  with  subsistence  farming  ;  the  worker  be- 
comes an  employee  in  a  business  where  the  capital  is 
owned  by  his  employer,  and  he  depends  absolutely 
on  the  skill  of  his  own  hands  for  his  livelihood. 

Nothing  could  be  more  curious  than  to 
contrast  Defoe's  celebrated  picture  of  the  wool- 
weaving  districts  of  Yorkshire 1  with  those  districts 
in  their  present  condition.  Then  the  workers, 
semi-independent,  farming  small  enclosures  of  two 
to  six  or  seven  acres,  laboriously  produced  cloth 
by  hand  processes  in  their  own  houses.  Now 
they  work  in  enormous  factories,  fitted  up  with 
machinery  which  can  spin  and  weave  wool  both 
easier  and  better  than  in  earlier  days.  They 
return  to  their  homes  for  rest  and  leisure  alone. 
Work  for  wages  and  the  home  are  now  separated, 
and,  unless  the  use  of  cheap  electrical  power  brings 
about  a  counter-revolution,  are  likely  to  remain  so. 
At  the  same  time,  since  mobility  is  in  modern 

1  [Near  Halifax].  "  After  we  had  mounted  the  third  hill,  we  found 
the  country  one  continuous  village  .  .  .  hardly  a  House  standing  out 
of  speaking  distance  from  another,  and  as  the  day  wore  on  we  could 
see  at  every  House  a  tenter,  and  on  almost  every  tenter  a  Piece  of 
Cloth,  Kersey  or  Shalloon,  which  are  the  three  articles  of  this  country's 
labour  .  .  .  Then  as  every  clothier  must  necessarily  keep  one  horse 
at  least  to  fetch  home  his  wool  and  his  provisions  from  the  market, 
to  carry  his  yarn  to  the  spinners,  his  Manufacture  to  the  fulling  mill, 
and  when  finished  to  the  market  to  be  sold  and  the  like  ;  so  every  one 
generally  keeps  a  cow  or  two  for  his  Family  .  .  .  Nor  is  the  industry 
of  the  people  wanting  .  .  .  Though  we  met  few  People  without  Doors, 
yet  within  we  saw  the  Houses  full  of  lusty  fellows,  some  at  the  dye- 
vat,  some  at  the  loom,  others  dressing  the  cloths,  the  women  and 
children  carding  or  spinning.  All  employed  from  the  youngest  to  the 
oldest.  Scarce  a  thing  above  four  years  old,  but  its  hands  were 
sufficient  for  its  own  support."  Defoe,  "  Tour  through  Great  Britain  " 
(1769),  vol.  iii.  p.  146. 


i66     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

economic  conditions  of  prime  importance,  it  is 
becoming  less  and  less  common  for  the  manual 
worker,  or  indeed  for  the  citizen  of  any  class,  to 
own  his  house,  and  therefore  the  new  trade  of  the 
speculative  builder  comes  into  existence,  its  place 
being  taken  in  some  cases,  specially  in  mining 
districts,  by  the  "  company  "  houses  provided  by 
masters  for  their  employees. 

These  alterations  in  the  framework  of  society 
inevitably  influenced  home  life,  which  was  still 
further  affected  at  a  later  period  by  an  analogous 
movement.  Not  merely  the  work  done  for  wages 
left  the  home,  but  also  many  of  the  commodities 
formerly  produced  for  its  own  use  by  each  house- 
hold came  to  be  made  by  outside  labour. 

A  very  interesting  and  quite  untouched  field  of 
inquiry  here  awaits  the  economist.  Why,  for  in- 
stance, is  it  customary  to  bake  bread  at  home  in 
some  districts  and  to  buy  it  from  a  shop  in  others  ? 
Probably  the  explanation  is  to  be  found  in  the 
relative  cheapness  of  fuel.  Yorkshire  and  the 
North  of  England  are  close  to  abundant  coalfields, 
and  in  the  days  before  cheap  and  quick  transit  the 
difference  in  the  price  of  coal  in  the  South  and 
North  of  England  must  have  been  even  greater. 
At  a  time,  too,  before  the  improvement  of  ovens, 
owing  to  the  introduction  of  the  iron  range  and 
kitchener,  the  amount  of  fuel  used  for  baking 
bread  would  be  even  larger  than  at  present. 
Therefore  in  the  south  there  grew  up  a  race  of 
housekeepers  and  servants  unskilled  in  the  making 
of  the  delicious,  crusty  home-baked  loaf,  while  in 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS        167 

the  north,  even  though  conditions  have  changed, 
the  tradition  still  remains,  and  the  weekly  or  bi- 
weekly baking  day  is  a  regular  institution.  But 
this  theory  does  not  explain  why  bread  is  not 
baked  at  home  in  Scotland,  even  in  Glasgow  and 
the  districts  near  it,  or  in  Fife,  which  are  all 
situated  right  in  the  coal-bearing  areas. 

And  at  present  there  is  little  material  for  de- 
scribing how  brewing,  jam  and  cake-making,  biscuit- 
making,  the  making  and  the  washing  of  clothes, 
the  cleaning  of  furniture  and  carpets,  &c.,  passed 
from  the  household  to  the  factory  and  laundry. 
It  is  a  process  which  has  evidently  been  much 
quickened  by  the  growth  of  town  life,  itself  one 
of  the  most  important  effects  of  the  industrial 
revolution.1 

The  aggregation  of  population  in  towns  in  the 
first  place  made  the  space  available  for  household 
operations  much  smaller  than  was  the  case  when 
the  kitchen  was  supplemented  by  rows  of  out- 
houses, a  green  and  a  garden.  In  modern  condi- 
tions, washing  at  home  results  in  the  discomfort 
of  the  whole  family,  whether  that  family  lives  in 
a  single  room  or  in  a  decent  middle-class  house 
of  ten  or  twelve  rooms.  In  the  second  place,  the 

1  "  The  increase  of  urban  areas  can  be  gathered  from  the  Census 
Reports.  In  1851  .  .  .  the  population  of  such  areas  amounted  approxi- 
mately to  9,000,000,  or  50  percent,  of  the  total  population  of  England 
and  Wales  ;  by  1881  the  population  of  urban  sanitary  areas,  as  defined 
by  the  Public  Health  Acts,  1872  and  1875,  was  17,^00,000,  or  68  per 
cent,  of  the  aggregate  population;  by  1901  .  .  .  the  population  of 
boroughs  and  urban  districts  amounted  to  25,000,000,  or  77  per  cent, 
of  the  aggregate  population." — Blue  Book  on  Public  Health  and  Social 
Conditions,  p.  6  [Cd.  4671  of  1909]. 


168      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

massing  into  a  comparatively  small  area  of  a 
homogeneous  population  makes  it  easy  to  arrange 
for  other  methods  of  cleansing  clothes,  either  in 
the  working-class  districts  by  the  provision  of 
municipal  washing-houses,  or  in  the  more  well- 
to-do  suburbs  through  the  appearance  of  steam 
laundries.  In  the  same  way,  when  each  house- 
hold possessed  a  garden  it  was  natural  to  pick  the 
fruit  and  make  it  into  jam.  It  is  a  different  thing 
to  buy  fruit  specially  for  the  purpose.  Many 
housewives  find  that  when  the  cost  of  the  fruit, 
sugar,  and  extra  fuel  is  calculated,  taking  into 
account  also  the  dislocation  of  the  regular  routine 
of  the  household  caused  by  the  extra  work,  it  pays 
them  better  to  buy  the  jam  ready-made.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  use  of  machinery,  the  existence  of 
cheap  methods  of  transit,  and  the  multiplication  of 
grocers'  shops  makes  it  increasingly  possible  to 
produce  jam  in  large  quantities  actually  cheaper 
than  it  can  be  made  at  home,  and  to  distribute  it 
quickly  to  the  consumer. 

The  same  cause,  acting  within  and  without  the 
home  in  different  ways,  is  resulting  in  a  steady 
transference  of  these  domestic  avocations  from  the 
household.  Moralists  often  lament  this  tendency, 
and  attribute  it  entirely  to  increased  love  of  ease 
and  leisure  among  women.  But  it  is  no  more 
possible  to  draw  an  indictment  against  a  whole  sex 
than  against  a  whole  people,  and  an  alteration  in 
custom  so  widespread  as  this  which  we  are  dis- 
cussing must  have  deeper  roots  than  a  personal 
defect  of  laziness  in  particular  individuals. 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS       169 

This  removal  of  production  for  domestic  use 
from  the  home  operates,  however,  in  very  different 
ways  in  different  cases.  Sometimes  the  article  is 
produced  much  more  cheaply  outside  the  home 
than  within,  owing  to  the  lower  cost  and  greater 
efficiency  of  large-scale  methods  of  manufacture. 
But  this  is  not  invariably  the  case.  Laundry- 
work,  for  instance,  is  probably  done  more  cheaply 
in  the  private  household.  The  few  attempts 
hitherto  made  to  provide  hot  cooked  food  from 
a  central  kitchen  at  a  reasonable  price  have  not 
been  successful.  On  the  other  hand,  no  indi- 
vidual household  could  hope  to  rival  Messrs. 
Huntley  &  Palmer  as  producers  of  biscuits.  The 
factors  which  prevent  the  full  economies  of  the 
large-scale  method  of  production  from  being 
realised  in  the  making  of  certain  commodities  are 
twofold.  (i)  Some  goods  are  of  such  a  kind 
that  they  must  be  consumed  where  they  are  pro- 
duced. Jam  or  even  plum-puddings  can  be  made 
in  a  factory  in  the  North  of  England  and  after- 
wards transferred  to  London.  But  roast  beef, 
omelettes,  and  rice-puddings  must  be  eaten  within 
at  least  a  hundred  yards  of  the  place  where  they 
are  cooked.  This  obvious  fact  effectually  retains 
the  supremacy  of  the  home  in  the  provision  of  hot 
cooked  food,  and  disposes  once  and  for  all  of  the 
cruder  arguments  for  co-operative  housekeeping. 
(2)  Certain  commodities  must  be  made  for  or 
returned  to  individual  owners.  If,  for  instance, 
we  did  not  trouble  to  receive  our  own  sheets  and 
towels  from  the  laundry,  but  simply  made  a  con- 


170      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

tract  that  each  week  we  should  be  supplied  with 
a  certain  number,  then  the  washing  and  sorting 
could  be  done  wholesale  at  a  much  cheaper  rate. 
If  we  sent  our  own  fruit  to  the  factories  to  be 
made  into  jam,  jam  would  be  much  more  ex- 
pensive. 

Thus  the  household  will  compete  successfully 
with  outside  agencies,  in  the  case  of  all  com- 
modities which  must  be  consumed  on  the  spot, 
and  the  outside  agencies  will  have  only  a  small 
advantage — will  do  the  washing  or  dressmaking 
more  conveniently,  but  not  much  cheaper — when 
wholesale  methods  are  forbidden  by  the  personal 
interest  of  each  consumer  in  one  special  portion 
of  the  commodities  dealt  with.1 

Still,  regarding  the  matter  from  the  general 
economic  standpoint,  it  cannot  be  denied  that 
the  result  of  the  industrial  revolution  has  been 
to  transfer  many  branches  of  production  both  for 
profit  and  for  use  from  the  home  to  the  factory. 

(4)  The  Position  of  Women  as  Affected  by  the 
Industrial   Revolution 

This  in  its  turn  affected  the  position  of  women, 
and  is  probably,  if  not  the  sole,  at  least  the  most 
important  reason  for  the  discontent  and  unrest  to 
be  traced  among  women  of  many  different  classes 
in  the  nineteenth  century.  But  the  women  be- 

1  It  should  be  noted,  too,  that  the  advantages  of  the  large-scale 
method  of  production  are  greatly  diminished  by  the  dangers  of  adul- 
teration. Cf.  p.  177. 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS       171 

longing  to  the  manual  labouring  class  and  the 
women  belonging  to  the  upper  classes  were 
influenced  in  different  ways. 

The  former  had  always  been  accustomed  to 
work  for  their  living,  indirectly  if  not  directly. 
On  the  little  farms  they  looked  after  the  cow,  the 
hens,  and  the  garden.  They  did  the  carding  and 
the  spinning  of  flax  and  of  wool.  True,  these 
industries  were  carried  on  at  home,  and  probably 
the  decent  "manufacturer,"  then  literally  a  hand- 
worker, would  have  regarded  himself  as  dis- 
graced had  his  wife  or  daughters  needed  to 
go  outside  his  home  to  find  work.1  But  when 
the  factory  system  came,  with  the  horrible 
sufferings  caused  by  the  transition  from  one 
system  of  industry  to  another,  the  women  and 
children  always  accustomed  to  toil  at  home 
followed  their  work  to  the  factory,  and  there, 
owing  to  the  new  methods  of  competition  and 
to  the  absence  of  any  regulation  of  industry, 
they  suffered  hardships  of  overwork  and  under- 
payment which  seem  to  the  present  generation 
nearly  incredible. 

Home  life  for  a  time  almost  disappeared,  and 
the  suffering  and  degeneration  was  only  checked 
by  the  series  of  Factory  Acts,  imposing  ever  fresh 
and  fresh  restrictions  on  the  treatment  of  women 

1  In  the  absence  of  an  efficient  system  of  police,  it  probably  was  not 
safe  for  women  to  walk  or  travel  alone.  In  the  security  provided  for 
us  by  paved  and  lighted  streets,  guarded  by  trained  constables,  and  in 
the  complete  safety  of  modern  methods  of  travelling,  some  of  us  are 
apt  now  to  forget  these  elementary  considerations,  once  of  supreme 
importance. 


172     HOUSEHOLD   ADMINISTRATION 

and  children.1  The  policy  underlying  these  acts 
was  much  criticised  at  the  time,  and  was  indeed 
not  fully  comprehended  until  recently.  But  it  is 
now  all  but  universally  admitted  that  the  Factory 
Acts  have  in  the  main  achieved  their  object,  and 
have  greatly  improved  the  position  of  women  in  the 
districts  most  affected  by  them  ;  and  reformers  are 
constantly  urging  their  extension  to  fresh  trades. 

This  movement  was  not  understood,  and  was  in 
consequence  opposed  by  the  women  of  the  middle- 
classes,  whose  position  was  affected  quite  differ- 
ently by  the  industrial  revolution.  They  too 
found  their  occupations  within  the  home  to  a 
large  extent  destroyed.  And  in  other  ways  their 
situation  was  altered.  For  some  reason  not  yet 
explained,  there  appeared  in  the  middle-classes  a 
surplus  of  women.  This  is  no  doubt  partly  due 
to  the  colonial  expansion  of  the  period,  which 
sent  young  men  out  to  Australia,  Canada,  and 
South  Africa,  while  their  natural  mates  remained 
behind  in  England.  It  is  not  easy  to  give  precise 
statistics,  as  our  statistical  tables  make  no  distinction 
of  classes,  but  common  observation  and  the  de- 
scription of  social  life  in  the  novels  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  afford  evidence  of  this  fact.  Some 
statistics  bearing  on  the  subject  can  be  found  in 
Miss  Clara  Collet's 2  article,  "  Prospects  of  Marriage 
for  Women/'  and  also  in  "  Die  Frauenfrage,"  by 

1  For  the  whole  subject,  see  Hutchins  and  Harrison,  "History  of 
Factory  Legislation." 

2  In  "  Educated  Working  Women,"  by  Clara  E.  Collet,  1902.     Miss 
Collet  says  :  "jWere  statistics  available  it  might  perhaps  be  shown  that 
the  unmarried  women  are  to  a  large  extent  the  daughters  of  clerks  and 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS       173 

Lilie  Braun,  pp.  157^.  Frau  Braun,  whose  book 
is  marked  throughout  by  characteristic  German 
thoroughness,  sums  up  : l  "  Es  hat  sich  gezeigt, 
dass  die  Zunahme  der  allein  stehenden  Frauen,  die 
Abnahme  der  Heiratsfrequenz  und  die  wirtschaft- 
liche  Not  als  Ursache  der  Frauenbewegung  in 
aller  Lande  anzusehen  sind." 

But  it  was  not  merely  the  decreased  chance  of 
marriage  which  made  the  lives  of  middle-class 
women  difficult  in  the  last  century.  There  was 
also  a  change  in  the  position  of  the  fathers,  which 
decreased  their  opportunity  for  providing  for  their 
unmarried  daughters.  The  middle-class  man  is 
now  less  and  less  frequently  at  the  head  of  a 
business  of  his  own,  and  is  more  and  more  fre- 
quently a  salaried  clerk,  manager,  or  engineer. 

Formerly  the  shop  or  farm  when  it  passed  to 
the  eldest  son  was  burdened  with  the  charge 
of  the  spinster  sisters,  who  often  would  help 
in  the  dairy  or  behind  the  counter.  Now,  when 
a  middle-class  man  dies,  his  hold  on  the  in- 
dustrial world,  so  to  speak,  passes -away  with  him, 
unless  he  has  been  at  once  able  and  willing  to 
lay  by  savings  out  of  his  salary,  a  duty  too 
often  neglected.  Briefly,  therefore,  the  unmarried 
woman  of  the  middle-classes  is  less  likely  to 
marry,  has  less  to  occupy  her  at  home,  and 

professional  men  .  .  .  Emigration  is  probably  more  frequent  in  the 
salaried  class  ;  and  where  the  sons  are  obliged  to  emigrate,  it  frequently 
happens  that  the  daughters  have  to  work  for  their  living.  In  this 
class  I  believe  the  inequality  of  the  sexes  is  greatest  and  the  chances  of 
marriage  least"  (pp.  37-38). 
1  P.  171. 


174     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

cannot  so  easily  be  provided  for  by  her  father  if 
she  remains  a  spinster. 

Is  it  then  to  be  wondered  at  if  women  insist,  in 
increasing  numbers,  upon  a  thorough  education 
as  well  as  the  right  to  enter  a  profession  in  which 
they  can  be  self-supporting  ? l  But  the  first  women 
who  decided  that  a  way  must  be  opened  by  which 
they  could  earn  for  themselves  honourable  main- 
tenance not  unnaturally  fell  into  what  we  cannot 
but  regard  now  as  regrettable  mistakes,  however 
unavoidable  these  errors  may  have  been  at  the 
time.  Their  great  difficulties  were  to  win  admis- 
sion to  the  universities  and  permission  to  practise 
what  had  hitherto  been  regarded  as  men's  pro- 
fessions. Therefore  they  dreaded  all  restrictions 
liable  to  be  laid  upon  the  entrance  of  women  to 
occupations,  and  were  led  in  consequence  to 
oppose  the  Factory  Acts,  designed  for  the  protec- 
tion of  women  of  the  working-classes.  It  is  only 
to-day  and  only  partially  that  the  woman  teacher, 
doctor,  or  journalist  has  come  to  understand 

1  I  cannot  refrain  at  this  point  from  inserting  the  following  quotations 
from  "Shirley"  (chapter  xxii.).  Charlotte  Bronte's  genius  illumined 
the  situation  of  many  girls  even  in  her  time,  and  of  a  larger  number 
since.  Caroline  is  speaking.  ' '  Old  maids,  like  the  houseless  and  unem- 
ployed poor,  should  not  ask  for  a  place  and  an  occupation  in  the  world  ; 
the  demand  disturbs  the  happy  and  rich  ;  it  disturbs  parents.  Look  at 
the  numerous  families  of  girls  in  this  neighbourhood.  The  brothers  of 
these  girls  are  every  one  in  business  or  in  professions  .  .  .  their 
sisters  have  no  earthly  employment  but  household  work  and  sewing. 
.  .  .  Men  of  England  !  look  at  your  poor  girls,  many  of  them  fading 
around  you,  dropping  off  in  consumption  or  decline  ;  or,  what  is  worse, 
degenerating  to  sour  old  maids,  envious,  backbiting,  wretched,  because 
life  is  a  desert  to  them  ;  or,  what  is  worst  of  all,  reduced  to  strive,  by 
scarce  modest  coquetry  and  debasing  artifice,  to  gain  that  position  and 
consideration  by  marriage  which  to  celibacy  is  denied." 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS       175 

that  the  position  and  problems  of  the  factory- 
hand  are  very  different  from  her  own,  and  that 
confusion  is  created  if  she  insists  on  judging 
them  from  her  own  standpoint. 

In  the  next  place,  they  were  almost  forced  to 
become  masculine  and  aggressive  in  their  manners 
and  outlook  upon  life.  In  particular,  the  need  of 
conformity  to  a  system  of  education  framed  for 
men  and  not  for  women  led  to  an  undervaluation 
of  domestic  pursuits.  It  was  not  realised  that 
in  managing  a  household  and  in  bringing  up 
children  there  was  scope  for  the  most  developed 
character  and  the  finest  education. 

But  with  the  twentieth  century,*  college-trained 
women  themselves  are  coming  to  see  that  their 
previous  neglect  of  those  principles  of  science  and 
economics  which  underlie  household  administra- 
tion was  unwise  and  unwarranted.  Of  that  change 
of  attitude,  the  new  courses  in  home  science  at 
King's  College  are  the  firstfruits,  and  this  book 
is  a  small  contribution  to  a  movement  which  is  des- 
tined, perhaps,  to  revolutionise  housekeeping,  as  a 
band  of  devoted  women  succeeded  some  few  years 
since  in  revolutionising  the  profession  of  nursing. 

The  main  lines  on  which  the  influence  of  the 
industrial  revolution  on  women's  position  has 
operated  can  be  but  briefly  indicated  in  this  very 

1  I  am  not  suggesting  here  that  the  pioneers  of  women's  higher  edu- 
cation were  wrong  in  the  attitude  they  adopted.  To  win  for  women 
intellectual  freedom  was  the  most  important  duty  for  them,  and  that 
could  only  be  achieved  by  women  submitting  to  the  same  intellectual 
tests  as  men.  But  the  problems  which  call  for  solution  by  their  suc- 
cessors of  a  later  generation  have  assumed  a  new  form, 


176      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

summary  sketch.  Want  of  space  prevents  me  from 
doing  more  than  allude  to  other  aspects  of  the  ques- 
tion, such  as  the  employment  of  married  women, 
the  status  of  women  in  government  offices,  women's 
trade  unions,  homework  and  sweating,  the  preven- 
tion of  infant  mortality,  the  work  of  women  in  the 
administration  of  charity  and  in  local  government, 
together  with  many  other  developments  of  the  one 
cause — the  alteration  between  the  relations  of  the 
home  and  of  society  due  to  the  changes  in  our 
commercial  and  manufacturing  system. 

I  must  turn  now  to  a  study  of  the  economics 
of  the  household  as  it  actually  exists  to-day. 

II.   THE   PRESENT   ORGANISATION    OF   THE 
HOUSEHOLD 

To  begin  with,  it  is  perhaps  worth  while  to  notice 
certain  broad  distinctions  which  differentiate  the 
household,  considered  merely  as  an  economic 
institution,  from  other  agencies  engaged  in  the 
production  of  commodities  and  services. 

One  main  difference  is,  as  was  noticed  earlier, 
that  the  household  produces  use-values,  and  all 
other  organisations  (save  some  public  bodies) 
exchange-values.  Or  to  put  the  same  thing  in 
another  way,  the  industrial  world  is  run  to  make 
a  profit ;  the  household,  on  the  contrary,  is  kept 
up  by  the  contributions  of  its  members,  and  exists 
to  provide  for  them  the  necessaries  and  comforts 
of  life.  None  the  less  is  the  work  of  cooking, 
cleaning,  and  serving  of  real  economic  value 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS       177 

when  carried  on  within  the  household,  as  people 
discover  when  they  have  to  pay  for  the  organisa- 
tion of  the  same  services  in  hotels  or  boarding- 
houses. 

The  second  great  distinction  is  that  while  any 
other  business  may  expand  to  meet  the  demands 
of  a  growing  market,  and  as  a  result  of  the  in- 
creasing competency  of  its  organiser  and  work- 
people, the  household  is  definitely  limited  in  scope 
by  the  numbers  of  the  family  included  within  it. 
Biscuit-makers  or  jam-makers,  to  put  the  matter 
concretely,  may  succeed  by  skilful  management 
in  enlarging  their  businesses  until  they  supply 
their  goods  to  hundreds  of  thousands  of  people, 
and  earn  a  large  profit  by  doing  so.  But  the 
most  efficient  housekeeper  continues  all  her  life 
to  organise  and  cater  for  the  same  number  of 
people,  and  her  reward  for  her  good  management 
does  not  consist  in  a  raised  salary  or  increased 
profits.  It  is,  in  fact,  not  pecuniary  at  all,  but 
is  the  increased  well-being  of  those  whom  she 
serves. 

Important  consequences  follow  from  these  two 
distinctions,  some  of  them  desirable,  others  the 
reverse.  The  household  is  preserved,  as  it  were,  as 
a  little  oasis  in  the  midst  of  the  surrounding  com- 
mercialism. There  at  least  exists  no  temptation 
to  adulteration  or  sophistication,  or  to  shoddy 
work  intended  to  sell  but  not  to  last.  No  house- 
wife would  be  such  a  fool  as  to  put  alum  in  the 
bread  baked  at  home,  to  use  decaying  fruit  in  the 
tarts,  or  questionable  meat  in  her  pies.  She  can 

M 


178      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

have  no  object  save  to  provide  the  best  she  can 
for  her  family  with  the  means  at  her  disposal. 
This  is  an  enormous  advantage,  the  value  of 
which  it  is  hardly  possible  to  overrate. 

But  the  absence  of  profit-making  has  certain  dis- 
advantages. It  means  that  while  other  economic 
organisations  are  being  constantly  spurred  to  in- 
creasing efficiency  by  the  stimulus  of  competition, 
the  household  remains  backward.  A  manufac- 
turer knows  to-day  that  he  must  use  the  most 
up-to-date  machinery  and  employ  the  most  skilled 
management  or  be  beaten  in  the  race  for  com- 
mercial supremacy.  But  housekeepers  may  con- 
tinue (and  do  continue)  to  use  old-fashioned 
ranges  or  antiquated  systems  of  hot-water  heating 
without  any  reference  to  the  proceedings  of  their 
neighbours.  Without  doubt  it  results  that  new 
inventions  make  their  way  much  more  slowly 
in  housekeeping  than  in  profit-making  industry. 
How  rare,  for  instance,  it  is  to  find  properly  con- 
structed grates  outside  very  wealthy  households. 
How  badly  the  kitchen,  larder,  and  scullery  are 
planned  in  relation  to  one  another.  In  how  few 
cases  is  any  attempt  made  to  utilise  electricity  for 
cooking  or  removing  dust,  for  both  of  which 
purposes  admirable  machines  are  already  on  the 
market. 

But  there  are  other  factors  which  also  contri- 
bute to  the  backwardness  of  domestic  engineering. 
The  smallness  of  the  household  is  one.  It  pays  a 
large  hotel,  for  instance,  to  buy  special  machines 
for  cleaning  knives,  or  to  instal  superheated  steam 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS        179 

for  washing  plates  and  dishes.  But  neither  the 
initial  expense  nor  the  cost  of  running  could  be 
met  out  of  the  funds  at  the  disposal  of  the  small 
household.  Another  reason  exists  in  the  fact  that 
the  average  housewife  does  not  distinguish  between 
annual  and  capital  outlay.  Unaccustomed  to 
finance,  and  keeping  accounts — if  she  keeps  them 
at  all — in  a  very  amateurish  fashion,  she  fails  to 
understand  that  capital  expenditure,  let  us  say,  on 
one  of  the  little  electric  vacuum  cleaners  now  on 
the  market  might  pay  for  itself  in  a  short  time  by 
saving  the  wages  of  a  charwoman. 

(a)  THE  ORGANISATION  OF  THE  HOUSEHOLD  AS 
AFFECTED  BY  THE  HOUSING  QUESTION 

Then,  finally,  few  people  own  their  houses,  and 
are  therefore  disinclined  to  make  an  outlay  which 
would  benefit  their  successors  rather  than  them- 
selves. Landlords  (who  are  frequently  retired 
tradesmen  or  elderly  ladies  depending  on  the  rent  of 
a  row  of  houses  for  their  sole  income)  are  in  their 
turn  unprogressive  and  unenlightened.  It  is  often 
hard  to  induce  a  landlord  of  the  type  indicated  to 
consent  to  structural  changes  even  if  carried  out  at 
the  tenant's  expense.  The  builders  of  new  houses, 
again,  are  not,  to  put  it  mildly,  educated  in  the 
best  schools  of  household  architecture  and 
domestic  engineering.  It  is  true  that  in  some 
suburbs,  largely  under  the  influence  of  the  more 
competent  architects  employed  by  the  garden  city 
organisations,  a  marked  improvement  in  domestic 


i8o      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

building  is  noticeable.  But  only  too  often  the 
hot-water  system  is  inefficient,  the  ventilation 
poor,  the  grates  wasteful,  and  so  on.  I  have  never 
yet  heard  of  a  speculative  builder  who  deliberately 
planned  the  laying  out  of  the  streets  in  the  area 
which  he  was  developing  in  such  a  way  that  the 
living-rooms  might  have  a  maximum  and  the 
larder  and  pantries  a  minimum  of  sunlight.  The 
new  roads  are  usually  all  set  at  right  angles  to  the 
main  street,  and  the  houses  rigidly  planted  square  to 
the  roads,  regardless  of  the  points  of  the  compass. 

All  these  factors,  acting  together,  prevent  that 
general  improvement  in  the  construction  of  houses 
which  is  noticeable  in  other  branches  of  industry. 
Progress  does,  of  course,  take  place.  The  pressure 
exercised  by  the  local  health  authorities  leads  to  im- 
proved drainage  and  plumbing ;  lighting,  owing  to 
the  recent  competition  between  gas  and  electricity 
has  become  both  cheaper  and  better.  But  an 
intelligent  application  of  science  and  investmenl 
of  capital  when  a  house  is  under  construction 
could  easily  effect  still  further  improvements. 

Since,  however,  the  household  is  not  influenced 
by  the  ordinary  processes  of  competition,  advance 
will  probably  depend  on  some  form  of  co-opera- 
tion among  tenants.  The  principle  of  tenant  co- 
partnership has  hitherto  been  applied  only  to  the 
construction  of  working-class  houses,  but  there 
seems  to  be  no  reason  why  it  should  be  not 
equally  useful  among  the  middle  classes.  The 
advantages  of  the  organisation  are  that  it  secures 
to  the  tenant  a  well-built  house,  sometimes 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS       181 

specially  constructed  to  meet  his  wishes,  while  his 
complete  mobility  is  not  interfered  with  as  it  is 
by  ownership  of  his  dwelling.  These  apparently 
opposed  results  are  obtained  by  the  formation  of 
a  company  which  is  the  legal  owner  of  the  land 
and  the  houses  ;  but  no  one  is  allowed  to  rent  a 
house  until  he  invests  a  certain  amount  of  money 
in  the  company.  Thus  there  are  two  classes  of 
shareholders — tenant  shareholders  and  ordinary 
shareholders.  If  a  man  wishes  to  move  from  the 
neighbourhood,  then  he  ceases  to  be  a  tenant  and 
becomes  only  an  ordinary  shareholder,  and  if  he 
needs  the  money  he  can  always  sell  out.  Rent  is 
paid  in  the  ordinary  way,  and  so  too  are  dividends 
on  the  shares.  Thus  groups  of  people  are  enabled 
to  control  the  conditions  under  which  they  are 
housed,  without  being  hampered  by  the  possession 
of  a  dwelling-house,  which  in  an  emergency  they 
may  be  forced  to  sell  at  a  serious  loss.  Minor 
advantages  are  greater  cheapness  of  construction 
owing  to  wholesale  buying  of  materials,  and  the 
provision  of  a  more  liberal  repair  fund  than  is 
contemplated  by  the  ordinary  landlord.  It  is 
possible,  too,  to  provide  common  tennis  courts, 
children's  playgrounds,  pleasure  gardens,  &c., 
which  are  kept  up  out  of  the  general  funds  of  the 
company.1  The  "  co-partnership  tenants'  "  villages 
at  Bournville,  Hampstead,  Ealing,  &c.,  are  all 
doing  well,2  and  we  may  venture  to  hope  that  if 

1  See  Raymond  Unwin,  "  Housing  and  Town- Planning." 

2  In  June  1908,  the  value  of  the  property  of  the  various  tenants' 
companies  was  only  a  little  short  of  a  quarter  of  a  million  pounds,  and 
their  operations  have  since  then  been  extended  in  various  directions. 


182      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

^ 

the  same  principle  were  applied  to  the  housing  of 
the  middle  classes,  the  worst  horrors  of  the  dreary 
and  yet  pretentious  suburbs  constructed  by  the 
speculative  builder  would  soon  be  checked. 


(£)  THE  PROBLEMS  OF  DOMESTIC  SERVICE 

The  position  of  the  domestic  servant  is  the  next 
subject  which  demands  consideration.  It  is  a 
question  which  has  aroused  much  acrimonious 
controversy,  mistresses  accusing  maids  of  ignorance 
and  inefficiency,  maids  objecting  in  their  turn  to 
the  menial  position  and  lack  of  freedom  involved 
in  domestic  service.  Yet  it  is  curious  to  notice 
that  the  conditions  of  this  branch  of  work  have 
been  little  studied  by  the  economist.  The  number 
of  domestic  servants  as  enumerated  in  the  census 
of  1901  was  1,330,783,  the  largest  single  occupa- 
tion in  the  country.1  But  while  dozens  of  books 
and  blue-books  could  be  named  discussing  the 
position  of  the  textile  worker  or  the  agricultural 
labourer,  not  more  than  three  or  four  investigators 
have  concerned  themselves  with  the  domestic 
servant,  on  whose  efficiency  our  health  and  comfort 
absolutely  depend. 

Another  curious  anomaly  is  that  domestic  ser- 
vants are  becoming  fewer  in  proportion  to  the  popu- 

1  For  comparison  : — 

Number  of 
Occupation.  Persons  Employed. 

Agriculture 1,197,922 

Textile  fabrics     .         .         .         .         .       i,  155,397 
Professional  occupations       .         .         .          606,260 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS       183 

lation,  although  the  level  of  their  wages  is  very  high 
in  comparison  with  the  usual  payments  for  women's 
work.  Between  1881  and  1901  female  indoor 
servants  increased  from  1,230,406  to  1,330,783, 
an  increase  of  8.2  per  cent.,  while  the  population 
increased  25.2  per  cent.  Actually,  then,  there  was 
a  smaller  proportion  of  the  population  engaged  in 
domestic  service  in  1901  then  in  iSSi.1  What 
is  still  more  remarkable  is  that  at  the  younger 
ages  the  number  has  actually  decreased.  Between 
the  ages  15—20,  there  is  a  decrease  of  7.3  per  cent., 
while  in  the  number  of  females  living  at  those 
ages  there  is  an  increase  of  28.1  per  cent.  This 
suggests  that  the  difficulty  of  finding  servants  will 
intensify  as  time  goes  on,  as  is  indeed  borne  out 
by  observation.  Other  women's  industries  are 
growing  very  rapidly.  The  number  of  female 
clerks  more  than  trebled  between  1891  and  1901. 
In  the  same  period,  female  elementary  school 
teachers  increased  by  over  50  per  cent.,  and  the 
women  engaged  in  hospital  and  institution  service 
and  in  workhouses  and  workhouse  infirmaries  by 
41  per  cent.  These  facts  indicate  that  domestic 
service  is  becoming  less  and  less  popular  and  is 
losing  ground,  while  other  women's  industries 
are  gaining. 

It  is  our  duty  then  to  consider  the  causes  of 
this  state  of  things,  which  cannot  be  regarded 
with  equanimity.  Our  steadily  increasing  wealth 
ought  to  make  it  more  and  more  possible  and 

1  Owing  to  a  change  in  the  system  of  enumeration  which  alters  the 
basis  of  comparison,  the  year  1891  cannot  be  used  in  our  calculations. 


1 84     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

desirable  for  more  women  to  specialise  in  those 
basic  industries  of  cooking  and  cleaning,  which  are 
of  the  utmost  importance  for  the  right  ordering 
of  life. 

The  question  must  be  treated  in  reference  to 
the  general  industrial  and  social  changes  of  our 
time.  Many  ladies,  knowing  nothing  of  economics, 
discuss  the  matter  as  one  of  personal  relations 
only,  and  when  they  find  themselves  annoyed  with 
one  incompetent  servant  after  another,  content 
themselves  with  blaming  the  servants  as  individuals 
without  inquiring  whether  the  difficulty  has  any 
deeper  root.  Or  they  take  up  a  reactionary 
attitude,  and  declare  that  the  lower  classes  are  over- 
educated  and  too  well  off,  and  are  in  consequence 
refusing  to  perform  their  natural  duties.  But 
neither  personal  blame  nor  the  semi-feudal  belief 
that  the  one  and  only  rightful  destiny  of  daughters 
of  bricklayers,  coal  miners,  or  small  clerks  is  to 
become  cooks  or  housemaids  in  the  service  of 
their  betters  will  avail  to  throw  any  light  on  the 
difficulty  of  obtaining  competent  domestic  workers. 
We  must  study  carefully  and  without  bias  the 
conditions  of  that  industry  as  compared  with 
other  industries,  in  order  to  solve  the  problem. 

In  the  first  place,  we  may  note  the  advantages 
of  domestic  service.  It  is,  as  has  been  already 
observed,  well  paid.  Some  investigations  carried 
out  by  a  group  of  my  students  last  year  led  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  ordinary  cook,  housemaid, 
or  general  servant  in  middle-class  households  costs 
her  employer  in  wages,  food,  house-room,  heating, 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS       185 

lighting,  and  insurance  about  .£50  a  year.1  I  have 
been  informed  by  a  lady  accustomed  to  deal  with 
servants  in  a  wealthy  household,  that  board  wages 
are  usually  145.  6d.  for  men  servants,  and  i2s.  6d. 
and  los.  6d.  for  women  servants.  When  we  re- 
member that  in  the  ranks  from  which  servants 
are  drawn,2  a  workman  is  comparatively  well  off 
if  he  is  earning  355.  a  week  for  the  support  of 
himself  and  his  family,  and  that  a  woman  who 
makes  £i  a  week  is  a  rarity,3  we  should  expect  to 
find  domestic  service  one  of  the  industries  in 
which  the  supply  outruns  the  demand.  Again,  i 
there  is  no  period  of  apprenticeship  or  training 
necessary.  The  servant  earns  from  the  first  day 
she  enters  service,  and  is  often  carefully  trained 
by  a  mistress  in  cooking  or  waiting  at  table,  only 
to  leave  that  mistress  for  a  better  situation  the 
moment  she  thoroughly  understands  her  duties. 
Again,  in  many  households  the  maids  share 
in  the  family  holidays.  They  spend  a  month  at 
the  seaside  or  in  the  country,  having  all  their 
travelling  expenses  paid  as  a  matter  of  course. 
Their  allowance  of  personal  holidays  may  not  be 
large,  but  at  all  events  their  wages  run  on  without 

1  The  competent  single-handed  maid  is  meant  here,  not  the  little 
"  slavey  "  who  assists  her  mistress  in  the  rougher  part  only  of  the  work. 

2  A  further  inquiry  is  needed  into  this  matter.     I  am  not  at  all  clear 
whether  servants  are  derived  from  the  class  of  the  fairly  prosperous 
artisan  or  from  the  unskilled  labouring  class. 

3  "There  are  unfortunately  no  reliable  statistics  as  to  the  average 
wages  earned  by  women  workers,  but,  speaking  from  a  large  experi- 
ence, I  estimate  that  the  average  wage  of  the  manual  woman  worker, 
taking  into  account  slackness,  sickness,  &c.,  is  certainly  not  more  than 
7s.  6d.  all  the  year  round." — "Trade  Unions,"  by  Mary  Macarthur,  in 
"  Women  in  Industry  from  Seven  Points  of  View,"  p.  66. 


186     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

interruption.  These  advantages  are  the  more  re- 
markable, when  it  is  considered  that  they  have 
been  attained  without  the  aid  of  any  trade  organi- 
sations at  all.  Trade  unions  for  domestic  workers 
have  been  formed  from  time  to  time,  but  their  life 
has  been  ephemeral  and  their  membership  of 
the  smallest.  High  wages,  practically  continuous 
employment,  food  and  lodging  usually  of  a  standard 
much  above  that  in  the  servant's  own  home — all 
these  are  to  be  found  in  domestic  work.  Why, 
then,  does  it  remain  unpopular  ? 

In  the  first  place,  the  hours  are  long  and 
irregular.  A  domestic  servant,  especially  in  a  place 
where  only  one  or  two  are  kept,  is  "  on  duty " 
for  at  least  fifteen  hours  a  day — from  7  A.M.  to 
10  P.M.  Even  meal-hours  are  not  free  from  inter- 
ruption. The  thoughtful  mistress,  it  is  true,  will 
not  summon  her  maids  at  dinner-time  or  supper- 
time  if  she  can  help  it,  but  all  mistresses  are  not 
thoughtful,  and  in  any  case  there  is  the  door- 
bell to  be  answered.  Much  of  the  work  is  not 
hard  ;  in  a  well-managed  household  there  should 
always  be  an  hour  or  two  of  comparative  leisure 
in  the  afternoon  and  again  in  the  evening.  But 
the  average  maid  is  never  sufficiently  free  through 
the  whole  day  to  go  out  without  asking  leave, 
or  to  lie  down  for  an  hour  should  her  morning 
work  have  been  unusually  heavy.  Of  some 
households  a  much  blacker  picture  could  be 
painted.  Not  merely  do  the  maids  have  no  leisure, 
but  they  are  actually  hard  at  work  washing,  cook- 
ing, ironing,  serving  meals,  washing  up,  carrying 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS       187 

coals  and  hot  water,  &c.,  for  even  a  larger  period 
than  the  fifteen  hours  which,  as  noted  before,  is 
the  minimum  of  time  "  on  duty."  These  hours 
compare  very  unfavourably  with  the  six  or  seven  \ 
hours'  day  of  the  elementary  school-teacher,  the 
eight  hours'  day  of  the  Civil  servant,  and  the  nine 
or  ten  hours  worked  in  factories  and  in  offices. 

Next,  there  is  the  lack  of  personal  freedom. 
This  may  seem  a  mere  sentimental  objection 
not  to  be  weighed  in  the  balance  for  a  moment 
by  sensible  persons  as  against  the  solid  advantages 
of  domestic  work.  But  sentimental  objections 
count  more  decisively  with  women  than  with 
men.  Miss  B.  L.  Hutchins  points  out  in  a  recent 
article  that  respectable  girls  of  the  working  class 
often  accept  quite  low  wages,  provided  only  their 
employment  is  light,  clean,  comfortable,  and  affords 
abundant  hours  of  leisure.  And  women  enter  on 
domestic  service  exactly  at  the  age  at  which  freedom 
and  some  amount  of  leisure  seem  more  valuable 
than  high  wages.  Doubtless  in  later  years  many 
sweated  drudges  have  wished  that  they  had  become 
servants  instead  of  entering  the  jam-factory  or  the 
steam-laundry.  But  at  sixteen  and  seventeen, 
when  the  choice  was  made,  the  situation  appeared 
very  different.  I  have  very  little  doubt  that  one 
of  the  greatest  objections  to  domestic  service  is 
that  it  removes  the  young  woman  from  her  own 
class  just  at  the  marriageable  age,  and  therefore 
decreases  her  chances  of  marriage,  while  in  some 
ill-governed  households  and  in  hotel  and  restau- 
rant service  she  may  be  subjected  to  severe 


188     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

temptation.  The  widening  of  the  gulf  between 
rich  and  poor  and  their  segregation  into  distinct 
districts  increases  this  disadvantage. 

Again,  there  is  the  fact  that  domestic  service 
is  strangely  enough  regarded  as  a  peculiarly 
menial  occupation,  in  itself  a  mark  of  a  lower 
social  grade.  This  is  indicated  by  the  use  of  the 
Christian  name,  the  insistence  on  a  uniform,  and 
the  commonness  of  contemptuous  terms  such  as 
"  slavey."  Refined  people  are  careful  to  avoid 
the  use  even  of  the  word  "  servant,"  replacing  it 
by  "  maid,"  so  strong  is  this  connotation  of  inferi- 
ority. Here  again  we  are  on  sentimental  grounds. 
But  it  certainly  seems  undesirable,  in  view  of  the 
spread  of  doctrines  of  social  equality,  that  this 
suggestion  of  a  low  social  status  should  cling 
around  the  person  who  undertakes  such  import- 
ant duties  as  cooking  and  washing. 

Another  disadvantage  is  the  loneliness  of  domestic 
servants.  In  other  occupations  women  have  col- 
leagues and  companions.  The  general  servant, 
coming  as  she  does  from  a  lively  even  if  poor 
working-class  home,  with  neighbours  at  hand  for 
gossip  in  moments  of  relaxation,  may  find  it  very 
hard  to  bear  up  against  the  restraint  and  un- 
natural quietude  of  her  first  place,1  and  often  ends 
by  returning  in  haste  to  the  factory  industry  she 
had  been  persuaded  to  abandon,  when  she  will 
find  the  gaiety  and  lively  society  of  girls  and  young 
men  of  her  own  age.  Even  when  two  maids  are 

1  Stephen  Reynolds  in  "  A  Poor  Man's  House"  paints  this  situation 
with  great  psychological  insight. 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS        189 

kept,  they  may  not  be  congenial  to  one  another, 
and  one  cannot  deny  that  to  share  work,  meals, 
and  often  bed  with  a  woman  whom  one  has  reason 
to  dislike,  is  a  fate  we  would  all  wish  to  avoid. 

Girls  of  higher  status  and  more  intelligence  are 
often  turned  from  domestic  service  by  the  fact 
that  it  affords  little  or  no  opportunity  for  self- 
improvement  or  recreation,  or  for  promotion  inside 
its  own  ranks.  Servants  cannot  go  to  lectures  or  ' 
evening  classes.  The  servant's  piano  or  bicycle 
is  a  common  theme  for  jesting  in  the  comic  papers. 
In  a  large  household  or  in  a  hotel  promotion  may 
be  obtained,  but  the  maid  who  becomes  a  general 
servant  or  a  single-handed  cook  reaches  the  limit 
of  her  increase  in  income  at  an  early  age. 

Many  of  the  disadvantages  noted  do  not  apply 
to  large  households.  There  companionship  is  to 
be  found,  and  promotion  may  be  looked  for. 
The  hours  are  more  regular,  meals  less  interrupted, 
and  free  time  easier  to  obtain.  Hence  I  was  not 
surprised  when  I  questioned  proprietors  of  clubs, 
residential  hotels,  and  the  mistresses  of  wealthy 
households  to  learn  that  most  of  them  considered 
the  servant  difficulty  to  be  greatly  exaggerated. 
The  housekeeper  of  one  suite  of  residential  flats 
told  me  she  had  no  trouble  at  all  in  getting 
servants,  and  that  she  sent  them  off  at  a  week's 
notice  if  they  proved  unsatisfactory.  "  Even  if  I 
cannot  get  a  maid  to  live  in  at  once,"  she  added, 
if  I  can  always  supplement  the  work  of  the  others 
by  an  extra  charwoman.  There  are  any  number 
of  outworkers  to  be  had."  In  another  residential 


i9o     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

hotel  all  the  women  servants  had  two  evenings  a 
week  free  from  5  to  10.30.  Here,  too,  there  was 
never  much  difficulty  in  obtaining  workers. 

Another  disadvantage  of  the  small  as  opposed 
to  the  large  household  is  that  the  management 
is  often  inefficient,  and  the  equipment  poor.  In 
these  residential  flats,  for  instance,  each  suite  had 
its  own  bathroom  and  lavatory,  and  consequently 
the  work  of  carrying  water  was  reduced  to  a 
minimum.  I  think,  too,  that  the  regularity  of  the 
discipline  is  often  liked  by  girls,  who  find  it  hard 
to  keep  to  good  ways  when  they  work  alone. 

On  the  whole,  then,  I  see  no  reason  to  believe 
that  domestic  service  is  unpopular  because  cooking 
,  and  cleaning  are  regarded  as  disagreeable  occupa- 
tions in  themselves.  It  is  the  conditions  under 
which  it  is  carried  on  that  are  disliked,  and  if 
mistresses  desire  to  have  better  servants,  those  con- 
'  ditions  must  be  altered.  Some  of  them,  it  must  be 
admitted,  are  inherent  in  the  present  organisation 
of  the  household.1  Some  form  of  co-operation 
might  obviate  certain  of  these  defects  ;  in  groups 
of  associated  homes,  the  domestic  equipment 
could  certainly  be  improved,  skilled  supervision 
and  proper  discipline  could  be  more  easily  carried 
out,  and  the  maids  would  have  the  advantages 
of  shorter  and  more  regular  hours  and  of  com- 
panionship with  their  equals.  Here  again  it  may 
be  possible  to  apply  the  co-partnership  tenants' 
organisation.  Many  people,  however,  not  un- 

1  Compare  Salmon,  "Domestic  Service,"  pp.  145-6. 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS       191 

naturally  dread  the  lack  of  privacy  and  inde- 
pendence which  such  a  mode  of  life  would,  they 
think,  entail,  and  would  prefer  to  endure  the  dis- 
advantages of  the  present  system  rather  than  lose 
control  over  their  own  kitchen  and  their  own 
servants.  It  is  too  soon  yet  to  express  an  opinion. 
Fortunately,  at  Letchworth,  at  Brent  Lodge, 
Finchley,  and  elsewhere,  experiments  in  the  pro- 
vision of  associated  homes  with  a  common  kitchen 
and  a  common  staff  of  servants  are  shortly  to  be 
tried.  If  successful,  they  will  no  doubt  prove  a 
boon  to  many  people. 

In  the  meantime  one  can  only  suggest  that 
mistresses  must  endeavour  individually  to  mitigate 
some  of  the  disadvantages  of  domestic  service. 
It  is  not  higher  wages  that  are  needed,  but  more 
leisure  and  more  society,  and  an  absence  of  the 
foolish  snobbery  which  regards  it  as  an  amusing 
joke  that  a  servant  should  wish  to  possess  a  bicycle 
or  go  to  a  meeting  or  concert. 

The  suggestion  has  sometimes  been  made  that 
distressed  gentlewomen  might  find  a  refuge  in 
domestic  service.  But  "  lady  servants "  or 
"  mothers'  helps "  only  rarely  prove  a  success. 
Their  presence  is  inevitably  a  hindrance  to  the 
full  enjoyment  of  family  privacy,  and  often 
enough  their  gentility  is  an  excuse  for  incom- 
petence. But  in  special  cases  lady  servants  turn 
out  well,  especially  as  children's  nurses.  The 
most  interesting  attempt  to  introduce  them  into 
general  domestic  service  is  that  started  by  the 
Guild  of  the  Dames  of  the  Household  at  Chelten- 


192      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

ham.  A  short  period  of  training  is  insisted  upon, 
while  on  the  other  hand  certain  privileges  not 
usually  conceded  to  maids  must  be  granted,  in 
particular,  a  period  of  two  hours  each  day  free 
from  duty.  In  small  and  quiet  households, 
specially  in  those  composed  of  ladies  only,  a 
tl  Dame  "  would  be  welcomed  in  place  of  the  in- 
competent general  servant,  or  two  Dames  might 
take  the  place  of  the  regulation  cook  and  house- 
parlour  maid.  But  it  would  not  be  easy  to  have 
one  Dame  demanding  special  privileges  and  im- 
bued with  different  traditions  in  a  larger  house- 
hold.1 

Nor  do  I  see  any  reason  to  expect  that  increased 
provision  for  domestic  training  alone  is  likely  to 
improve  the  lot  of  mistresses  who  want  maids. 
The  training  in  the  elementary  schools  is  often 
giveiV  to  children  too  young  to  profit  by  it,  and  is 
besides  designed  rather  to  enable  them  to  be  of 
use  in  their  own  homes  than  to  qualify  them  to 
become  cooks  or  housemaids  in  middle  or  upper- 
class  households.  Again,  the  girls  who  attend  at 
the  special  domestic  economy  schools  are  not 
usually  available  for  ordinary  domestic  service  ; 
the  greater  number  of  the  students  are  being  pre- 
pared either  for  teaching  or  for  positions  as  house- 
keepers and  matrons.  While  untrained  girls  can 
find  a  place  and  wages  without  any  difficulty, 
working-class  parents  are  not  likely  to  spend 
money  on  training  for  domestic  service  ;  and  the 

1  Compare  "  Englishwomen's  Year-book  for  1910,"  p.  69. 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS       193 

numbers  for  whom  scholarships  are  provided  must 
naturally  be  limited. 

Improvement  is  much  more  likely  to  result 
from  alterations  in  the  condition  of  domestic 
service.  If,  as  regards  leisure  and  social  status, 
that  occupation  could  be  put  more  nearly  on  a 
level  with  other  women's  trades,  the  outlook  would 
be  much  brighter,  and  then  training  in  domestic 
economy  in  continuation  schools  or  trade  schools 
for  girls  from  fourteen  to  sixteen  would  be  valu- 
able. 

Failing  these  reforms,  mistresses  will  probably 
continue  to  find  themselves  obliged  to  put  up  with 
cooks  who  cannot  cook,  and  housemaids  and 
laundresses  who  are  both  ignorant  and  incom- 
petent. The  irk  and  irritation  of  living  all  day 
long  at  close  quarters  with  an  impertinent  and 
inefficient  person,  which  often  severely  tries  the 
nerves  of  the  women  of  the  professional  classes, 
will  continue.  These  things  are  inevitable  so  long 
as  domestic  servants  do  not  choose  their  occupa- 
tion because  they  wish  to  follow  it,  but  because 
they  have  been  failures  in  other  directions.  There- 
fore no  improvement  would  be  attained  by  shutting 
other  avenues  of  employment  to  women  and  forcing 
them  back  into  this.  Such  a  line  of  action  is,  of 
course,  quite  impracticable,  whatever  be  the  diffi- 
culties of  mothers  of  families  and  mistresses  of 
households  ;  factories,  offices,  shops,  elementary 
schools  and  post-offices  will  continue  to  offer 
employment  to  women.  But  even  if  it  were 
practicable  it  would  fail  of  its  aim.  Work  is  only 

N 


194     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

well  done  when  it  is  chosen  for  its  own  sake, 
not  when  it  is  unwillingly  accepted  because  the 
worker  is  fit  for  nothing  else.  And  a  genuine  im- 
provement in  domestic  service  can  only  come 
about  by  an  alteration  in  its  conditions. 

A  systematic  investigation  into  English  domestic 
service  similar  to  that  carried  out  in  America  by 
Professor  Lucy  Salmon  of  Vassar  College  would 
be  most  useful  at  the  present  juncture,  and  may 
possibly  be  undertaken  by  the  household  eco- 
nomics class  at  King's  College.  Professor  Salmon 
issued  5000  schedules  to  employers  and  5000  to 
employees,  and  received  in  all  1744  answers.  On 
the  answers  received  she  based  the  conclusions 
arrived  at  in  her  book,  "  Domestic  Service,"  which 
are  not  dissimilar  to  those  set  forth  in  the  pre- 
ceding paragraphs.  Conditions  in  America  are, 
however,  so  unlike  those  in  England  that  a 
separate  investigation  for  this  country  would  be 
most  valuable. 


(c]  A  DISCUSSION  OF  DOMESTIC  BUDGETS 
(i)   Working-Class  Budgets 

I  have  left  myself  very  little  space  for  dealing 
with  another  important  section  of  household 
economics,  namely,  domestic  budgets.  Unfortu- 
nately the  material  for  a  satisfactory  study  of  the 
actual  and  the  advisable  division  of  household 
expenditure  is  only  abundant  in  certain  classes. 
There  are  a  considerable  number  of  investiga- 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS       195 

tions  into  the  cost  of  living  among  the  working- 
classes.1  From  these  it  is  clear  that  we  must 
make  a  very  marked  line  of  distinction  between 
the  domestic  circumstances  of  labourers  and 
of  artisans.  The  former  spend  at  least  from  75 
to  80  per  cent,  of  their  income  on  food  and 
lodging  alone  ;  yet  if  the  family  is  of  ordinary 
size  and  none  of  the  children  are  earning  any- 
thing, they  are  commonly  under-nourished  and 
badly  lodged.  The  remainder  of  the  income  is 
devoted  to  fuel,  clothes,  savings,  insurance,  and 
recreation. 

Members  of  this  class  commonly  wear  second- 
hand clothes,  and  live  in  tenement  houses,  origin- 
ally built  for  a  wealthier  section  of  the  community. 
It  is  they  who  send  their  children  to  work  at  any 
employment  that  turns  up  at  the  earliest  moment 
allowed  by  the  law.  The  burden  laid  on  the 
women  of  this  class  is  peculiarly  heavy.  They 
must  work  for  wages  if  possible,  for  every  extra 
shilling  adds  immensely  to  the  family  comfort. 
Hence  they  go  out  charing  ;  they  undertake  ill- 
paid  home  work  ;  and  at  the  same  time  all  the 
toil  of  keeping  the  house  and  children  clean  and 
of  doing  the  cooking  and  washing  falls  on  the 
mother.  Add  to  this  the  fact  that  if  the  food 
supply  runs  short,  then  the  children  and  the 
husband  have  their  share  first  and  the  mother 

1  e.g.  Rowntree,  "Poverty:  a  Study  of  Town  Life";  Liverpoo 
Economic  and  Statistical  Society,  "  How  the  Casual  Labourer  Lives  "  ; 
"  Study  of  the  Diet  of  the  Labouring  Classes  in  Edinburgh  "  (published 
by  Otto  Schulze  &  Co.,  now  out  of  print) ;  Recent  Blue-books  on  the 
Cost  of  Living,  &c. 


196     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

takes  what  may  be  left.  It  has  been  calculated 1 
that  this  class  amounts  to  about  one-third  of  the 
population,  and  is  the  source  whence  comes  the 
greater  part  of  the  pauperism  with  which  the 
country  is  afflicted. 

The  artisan  class  was  found  by  Mr.  Rowntree 
to  comprise  about  one-half  of  the  working-class 
population.  Its  domestic  circumstances  differ  in 
several  respects  from  those  of  the  class  already 
described.  Food  and  housing  were  adequate ; 
and,  save  in  the  textile  districts,  the  wife  commonly 
remains  at  home  and  the  children  stay  longer  at 
school.  It  is  this  class  that  is  the  backbone  of 
trade  unionism  and  the  co-operative  movement  ; 
it  is  in  fact  the  true  "  middle-class  "  of  Britain. 

Lady  Bell  in  her  book  "  At  the  Works "  gives 
a  very  sympathetic  sketch  of  the  home  life  of  the 
ironworkers  of  Middlesborough,  pointing  out  that 
the  monotony  and  narrowness  of  the  lives  led  by 
the  women  and  the  ugliness  of  the  surroundings 
of  the  workers'  houses  are  the  main  defects  from 
which  they  suffer.  Roughly  half  their  income 
goes  on  food,  which  is  plain  but  adequate.  The 
proportion  of  rent  varies  very  much  from  district 
to  district.  In  York  it  was  12.8,  but  in  such 
crowded  towns  as  London  and  Glasgow  it  would 
be  higher.  There  is,  however,  a  surplus  sufficient 

1  Rowntree,  "  Poverty  :  a  Study  of  Town  Life,"  pp.  1 17,  298^:,  as  to 
inadequacy  of  diet  of  labourer,  pp.  235  and  303.  Mr.  Rowntree's  con- 
clusions have  been  impugned  by  several  critics,  and  it  may  be  that 
his  dietary  standard  is  too  high.  But  even  if  it  turns  out  that  only 
a  quarter  and  not  a  third  of  the  population  are  in  receipt  of  incomes 
insufficient  for  the  expenditure  necessary  to  secure  bodily  efficiency, 
the  fact  is  serious  enough. 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS        197 

for     clothing,    saving,    holidays,    and     reasonable 
recreation. 

It  is  conjectured  that  the  excessive  expenditure 
on  drink  in  the  United  Kingdom1  must  be  largely 
due  to  this  class.  But  the  evidence  is  insufficient 
to  show  whether  the  labourer  or  the  artisan  is  the 
more  guilty. 


(2)  Loiver  Middle-Class  Budgets 

The  next  class  which  should  be  examined  is 
that  made  up  by  the  clerks  and  routine  brain- 
workers.  As  already  noted,  there  is  little  or  no 
material  available  for  the  study  of  the  budgets  of 
this  class.  The  Economic  Club  published  a  few 
years  ago  a  collection  of  family  budgets,  four 
of  which  might  be  taken  as  illustrating  the  home 
life  of  this  important  section  of  the  community. 
From  these  and  from  the  rather  unreliable  divi- 
sions of  income  given  in  some  of  the  smaller 
women's  papers,  I  have  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  food  absorbs  30  to  40  per  cent,  of  the  income, 
and  rent  15  to  20  per  cent.  The  expenditure  on 
clothing  is  much  more  liberal,  and  I  am  inclined 
to  believe  that  the  poorer  clerks  are  sometimes 
insufficiently  fed. 

It  should  be  noted  that  in  this  class  the  cost 
of  education  tends  to  be  borne  by  the  parent 
and  not  by  the  State  ;  no  doubt  there  is  here  a 

1  Calculated  by  Messrs.  Rowntree  and  Sherwell  to  amount  to 
6s.  lod.  per  family  of  the  working-class  population.  "  Temperance 
Problem  and  Social  Reform"  (7th  ed.),  p.  20. 


198      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

genuine  grievance,  one,  however,  which  the  pro- 
vision of  municipal  secondary  schools  is  gradually 
removing.  But  a  thorough  and  accurate  study 
of  the  circumstances  of  the  lower  middle-class 
would  be  of  the  utmost  value  at  the  present  time. 
It  is  certain  that  its  needs  and  demands  are  to 
some  extent  at  all  events  overlooked  through  the 
increasing  power  of  organised  labour  on  the  one 
hand  and  the  increasing  wealth  of  the  upper 
classes  on  the  other. 

(3)    The  Budget  of  the   Well-to-do 

Probably  it  is  in  the  budgets  of  these  wealthier 
classes  that  the  reader  of  these  pages  will  be  most 
interested  from  a  personal  standpoint.  Under 
this  head  there  is  very  little  scientifically  collected 
material ;  but  on  the  other  hand  the  ladies'  papers 
and  the  housekeeping  handbooks  afford  con- 
siderable information  of  somewhat  varying  value. 

It  is  in  this  class  that  service  becomes  an 
important  item  ;  it  is  in  this  class  that  the  artistic 
side  of  life,  the  enjoyment  of  physical  and  intel- 
lectual luxury,  first  becomes  possible.  In  a  sense 
the  study  of  expenditure  here  is  both  more  useful 
and  more  interesting.  A  fraction  of  the  income 
would  suffice  for  the  satisfaction  of  the  mere 
physiological  needs,  and  there  is  a  real  choice 
possible  in  the  disposition  of  the  surplus. 

Therefore,  in  the  case  of  these  larger  incomes, 
I  propose  to  discuss  rather  the  general  principles 
of  expenditure  than  the  statistical  facts.  The 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS        199 

latter  are  not  thoroughly  reliable,  and  at  the  same 
time  the  circumstances  of  the  class  in  question 
are  better  known  to  my  readers. 

The  fundamental  principle,  as  Marshall1  states, 
is  that  the  marginal  utility  of  each  separate  division 
of  expenditure  should  be  equal.  He  means  by 
this  that  our  income  should  be  so  distributed  that 
the  last  sixpence  we  spend  on  clothes  should 
yield  us  the  same  amount  of  pleasure  as  the  last 
sixpence  expended  on  food  or  on  books.  And  he 
rightly  remarks  that  to  the  housekeeper  the  value 
of  keeping  accounts  lies  precisely  in  the  fact  that 
it  makes  the  application  of  this  principle  easy. 

If  we  know  exactly  how  money  has  been  spent, 
then  it  is  possible  to  see  that  expenditure  has 
been  wrongly  balanced,  that  impulsive  extrava- 
gance on  hats  or  on  out-of-season  delicacies  has 
unduly  curtailed  the  amount  spent  on  holidays, 
books,  or  concerts.  It  is  for  this  reason  that 
itemised  tables  are  more  useful  to  the  housekeeper 
than  is  the  ordinary  creditor  and  debtor  method 
of  account-keeping.  She  should  of  course  be 
able  to  present  an  accurate  statement  of  the 
money  spent  and  received,  but  she  should  not  be 
content  with  this.  She  should  further  show  for 
each  quarter  the  amount  spent  on  rent,  food, 
fuel,  &c. 

The  table  appended  has  been  in  actual  use  for 
some  time,  and  has  served  on  more  than  one 
occasion  to  check  expenditure  which  was  unduly 

1   "  Principles"  (4th  ed.),  p.  194- 


200     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 


PUB  pooj 


1 


O    tx 

cl  a 


•£  a; 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS       201 

increasing.  It  could  easily  be  modified  in  various 
ways.  Food  could  be  further  subdivided,  and 
headings  for  dress  and  other  personal  expenses 
could  be  added.  Probably,  however,  it  will  be 
found  better  to  keep  one  card  for  the  quarterly 
household  expenditure,  and  others  for  the  personal 
expenditure  of  the  separate  members  of  the  house- 
hold. The  amount  of  trouble  involved  is  com- 
paratively small,  provided  that  the  different  items 
are  summed  up  and  entered  regularly  each  week 
when  the  household  books  are  examined.  If  the 
quarterly  cards  are  then  filed  in  order,  they  afford 
a  most  valuable  record  of  household  management 
in  a  small  and  easily  handled  form. 

When  deciding  on  the  amount  of  money  to  be 
allotted  to  the  separate  items,  the  first  thing  to 
be  kept  in  mind  is  the  necessity  of  preserving 
efficiency ;  and  brain-workers  ought  to  remember 
that  thorough  mental  alertness  and  competency 
can  only  be  secured  by  well-chosen,  well-cooked, 
and  daintily  served  food,  by  sufficiency  of  sleep,  by 
frequent  intervals  of  rest  and  recreation,  and  by 
thoroughly  invigorating  holidays.  Extravagance 
should  of  course  be  avoided,  but  the  journalist 
or  scientist  who  is  niggardly  of  expenditure  on 
these  items  will  probably  later  on  be  obliged  to 
spend  his  savings  on  doctor's  bills  or  a  rest  cure. 
A  high  standard  of  comfort  and  efficient  work  is 
the  cheapest  way  of  living  in  the  long  run. 
Whether,  however,  all  the  conventional  necessaries 
now  included  by  custom  in  the  upper  middle- 
class  expenditure  are  really  essential  to  the  brain- 


202      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

worker's  standard  of  life  is  perhaps  another 
question. 

The  "  simple  life "  which  consists  in  doing 
without  all  the  conveniences  of  civilisation  has 
been  proved  a  failure  by  many  experiments,  but 
a  "  simple  life  "  which  accepted  the  comforts  of 
electric  light,  gas  stoves,  and  laid-on  hot  water, 
but  abolished  heavy  curtains  and  carpets  and 
that  multiplicity  of  ornaments  and  of  dishes,  which 
increases  the  complexity  of  life  without  adding  to 
its  beauty,  might  turn  out  to  be  a  success.  In 
many  cases,  however,  conventional  expenditure  is 
essential  for  professional  advancement.  The 
doctor,  for  instance,  must  live  in  a  house  of  a 
certain  size  and  importance  ;  the  high  school 
teacher  or  woman  journalist  must  be  well  dressed. 
Expenditure  of  this  character  is  really  of  the  nature 
of  advertisement,  and  it  is  foolish  to  endeavour  to 
curtail  it. 

After  the  claims  of  efficiency  have  been  met, 
saving  and  insurance  come  next.  Life  insurance 
is  of  course  almost  universal  among  the  salaried 
classes,  and  is  a  duty  imperatively  laid  on  every 
man  whose  death  would  leave  his  family  without 
means.  But  it  is  curious  that  other  forms  of 
insurance  are  not  more  practised.  A  small  yearly 
payment  for  each  child,  commencing  at  its  birth, 
would  provide  a  convenient  sum  for  its  education, 
its  start  in  life,  or,  in  the  case  of  a  girl,  for  her 
trousseau  and  dowry.  Insurance  against  illness 
also  is  much  rarer  among  the  upper  middle  class 
than  among  the  working-classes.  Possibly  this  is 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS       203 

due  to  the  fact  that,  save  in  the  case  of  prolonged 
disease,  salaries  are  paid  during  illness,  while 
wages  cease  as  soon  as  the  worker  is  compelled 
to  stay  at  home ;  also  partly  no  doubt  to  the 
fact  that  provision  for  contingencies  is  made  in 
other  ways. 

Saving  and  insurance  will  be  less  necessary  in 
the  case  of  those  whose  income  is  derived  from 
land  or  from  invested  capital,  but  should  be  con- 
sidered absolutely  essential  by  all  those  in  receipt 
of  a  salary.  In  addition  a  small  sum  saved  and 
invested  in  some  easily  realisable  security  will 
be  most  valuable  to  meet  special  emergencies. 

If  after  all  these  needs  have  been  met,  i.e.  (i) 
full  "  efficiency  "  and  "  conventional  "  expenditure 
(including,  of  course,  such  an  education  for  the 
children  as  will  prepare  them  in  their  turn  to  earn 
an  income  in  the  same  rank  of  life  as  their  father), 
and  (2)  saving  and  insurance  to  provide  against  all 
contingencies  that  may  reasonably  be  anticipated 
—if,  then,  a  surplus  still  remains,  its  disposition 
must  be  a  matter  of  individual  choice,  and  it  is 
impossible  to  lay  down  general  rules. 

In  some  cases  it  will  be  saved,  in  others  it  will 
be  used  to  provide  more  material  and  conven- 
tional luxuries,  in  others  it  will  supply  the  needs 
of  what  American  writers  rather  unpleasingly  call 
the  "  higher  life."  Certainly  the  claims  of  gene- 
rosity, charity,  and  culture  should  first  be  met, 
and  it  is  the  right  and  wise  disposition  of  this 
surplus  income  which  might  well  tax  the  highest 
powers  of  any  human  being.  It  is  commonly 


204      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

supposed  to  be  a  difficult  thing  to  earn  money, 
but  a  simple  matter  to  spend  it.  On  the  contrary, 
to  spend  with  wisdom  and  discretion  is  always 
hard,  and  is  hardest  when  the  income  is  so  elastic 
that  a  slight  deviation  from  the  best  method  is 
not  immediately  visited  on  the  head  of  the  person 
who  has  offended. 

The  artisan's  wife  has  no  easy  task,  it  must  be 
confessed,  but  the  results  of  any  mistakes  she 
may  make  fall  at  once  upon  herself  or  her  children. 
But  if  the  mistress  of  a  large  household  is  careless 
or  incompetent,  then  she  may  cause  untold  waste, 
inefficiency  and  degeneration  among  her  servants 
and  tradespeople,  and  may  never  even  be  aware 
of  it. 

A  recent  book  by  Mr.  A.  Ponsonby1  gives  some 
extraordinary  instances  of  unnecessary  expendi- 
ture on  food.  Mr.  Ponsonby  is  not,  of  course, 
to  be  taken  as  an  unprejudiced  investigator  ;  he 
is  writing  rather  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
preacher  than  from  that  of  the  unbiassed  sociolo- 
gist. But  his  figures  are  not  likely  to  be  absolutely 
false,  and  it  is  safe  to  say  that  if  in  a  household 
containing  four  in  family  and  fourteen  servants 
the  food  bills  amounted  in  a  week  when  there  was 
little  entertaining  to  £60,  I2S.  yd.  (£3,  ys.  qd.  per 
head),2  either  the  servants  were  being  fed  in  a 
way  that  was  quite  absurdly  lavish,  or  much  of  the 
food  was  absolutely  wasted,  or  there  was  dishonest 
collusion  between  the  housekeeper  and  chef  and 

1  "The  Camel  and  the  Needle's  Eye." 

2  "  The  Camel  and  the  Needle's  Eye,"  p.  153. 


THE    ECONOMIC    RELATIONS       205 

the  tradespeople.  In  any  case,  the  ignorance  and 
negligence  of  the  mistress  of  the  house  were 
corrupting  to  her  staff. 

(d)  CONCLUSION 

In  short,  in  place  of  regarding  the  household 
as  standing  in  no  special  relation  to  the  rest  of 
the  community,  it  ought  to  be  understood  that  the 
function  of  the  housewife  is  of  the  utmost  import- 
ance, not  only  to  her  own  family,  but  to  the  whole 
nation.  It  is  she  who  is  finally  responsible  for 
the  education  of  the  children  ;  it  is  she  who,  in  the 
quiet  and  restful  charm  of  the  home,  provides  (or 
should  provide)  for  her  husband  and  grown-up 
children  the  recreation  and  refreshment  which 
they  need.  If  she  employs  many  servants,  then 
the  example  of  her  household  will  influence  for 
good  or  for  evil  the  homes  of  many  working-class 
couples.  It  is  the  demand  of  the  household  that 
determines  whether  the  labour  of  this  country 
shall  be  employed  on  debased  articles  of  sham 
luxury  or  on  well  made  and  artistic  goods. 

The  conscientious  housewife  could  also  to  some 
extent  discourage  sweating,  if  she  refused  to  buy 
products  which  to  her  knowledge  were  made 
under  bad  conditions.  The  responsibilities  of 
the  housewife  place  her  at  every  turn  in  eco- 
nomic relations  to  the  rest  of  the  community, 
and  therefore  it  is  only  right  that  coming  house- 
wives should  be  trained  not  alone  in  the  manual 
crafts  of  cooking  and  laundry-work,  but  also  in 


2o6      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

the  general  principles  of  economic  science  which 
underlie  the  development  and  present  organisa- 
tion of  the  household.  We  may  perhaps  hope 
too  that  the  principles  of  household  management 
may  in  turn  react  on  economic  science,  and 
may  show  to  its  professors  that  value  in  use, 
though  more  difficult  to  detect  and  estimate 
than  value  in  exchange,  has  been  unduly  neglected 
both  in  theory  and  practice. 

If  to  the  management  of  our  towns — which 
are,  after  all,  only  our  homes  on  a  larger  scale — 
were  applied  the  principles  used  by  a  good 
housekeeper  in  ordering  her  home,  then  cleanli- 
ness, beauty,  and  convenience  would  increase 
around  us.  A  science  of  economics  so  modified 
would  recall  to  a  scholar  the  original  meaning 
of  the  word;  for  what,  after  all,  did  the  craft  of 
oiKovofjuKYj,  as  first  developed  by  Xenophon  and 
Aristotle,  mean  but  just  "  the  management  of  the 
home"? 


SOME  RELATIONS  OF  SANITARY  SCIENCE 
TO  FAMILY  LIFE  AND  INDIVIDUAL 
EFFICIENCY 

BY  ALICE  RAVENHILL 


SOME   RELATIONS   OF   SANITARY 
SCIENCE   TO   FAMILY    LIFE 

AMONG  the  many  notable  characteristics  by  which 
the  last  half  century  has  been  distinguished, 
there  are  two  which  bid  fair  permanently  to 
colour  its  records  and  materially  to  influence 
the  future  of  our  country.  I  refer  in  the  first 
place  to  the  scientific  study  of  man,  his  nature, 
his  needs,  and  his  potentialities ;  and  in  the 
second  to  the  growing  appreciation  of  the  fact 
that  the  centre  of  ethical  gravity  must  be  shifted 
from  absorption  in  the  sole  concerns  of  self  to 
an  intelligent  interest  in  the  affairs  of  others — 
that  is  to  say,  that  selfishness  must  yield  to  well 
organised  and  discriminating  social  service. 


I.  MAN'S  PLACE  IN  NATURE 

It  is  of  course  no  new  thing  for  questions 
upon  the  real  nature  of  that  complex  creature, 
man,  to  force  themselves  upon  the  attention  of 
the  observant,  and  from  time  immemorial  the 
philosophical  have  spent  themselves  in  efforts  to 
solve  this  problem  by  theories  designed  to  de- 
tect, even  if  not  to  account  for,  the  agencies 

209  0 


210     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

active  in  the  formation  of  the  human  mind  and 
body.  The  records  of  older  civilisations  bear 
testimony  to  their  labours,  and  are  familiar  to 
most  students  of  ancient  literatures.  But  it  was 
not  till  the  resources  of  modern  science  forged 
new  tools  for  the  inquirer  that  it  became  possible 
to  chisel  out  from  the  bedrock  of  fact  the  main 
features  of  man's  physical  and  social  history. 

With  admirable  patience  and  infinite  skill,  the 
scientific  craftsmen  of  recent  times  have  labo- 
riously pieced  together  the  scattered  chips  of 
biological  research,  of  human  tradition,  of  tribal 
customs  and  of  world-wide  folklore,  until  the 
dignity  and  power,  the  beauty  and  the  possi- 
bilities of  human  nature  have  emerged  from  the 
dust  of  ignorance  and  the  veil  of  superstition. 
The  result  is  that  it  is  no  longer  permissible  to 
deplore  in  pessimistic  tones  the  inevitable  de- 
gradation of  the  race,  nor  to  accept  with 
supineness  the  threatened  deterioration  of  a 
population.  The  forces  by  which  humanity  is 
moulded  are  no  longer  unknown  ;  the  principles 
which  underlie  social  stability  have  been  identified  ; 
the  means  by  which  the  arts  may  be  developed, 
which  make  life  not  only  tolerable  but  health- 
ful, are  ready  to  our  hands. 

The  far-reaching  significance  of  these  facts 
in  connection  with  human  health  and  progress 
become  apparent  when  considered  in  more  de- 
tail. Observers  throughout  the  ages  have  gradu- 
ally noted,  and  subsequently  turned  to  practical 
account  in  garden,  meadow,  and  farmyard,  certain 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  211 

characteristics  common  to  all  known  forms  of 
vegetable  and  animal  life.  By  due  consideration 
of  these  it  was  found  possible  to  improve  breeds, 
to  strengthen  and  lengthen  life,  to  avert  disease, 
and  generally  to  enhance  economic  value.  It 
may  now  appear  simple  enough,  to  extend  and 
apply  these  observations  to  the  betterment  of 
human  life ;  but  many  generations  of  human  beings 
slipped  away  before  the  facts,  dimly  discerned  by 
Aristotle  and  Lucretius,  by  Buffon  and  Lamarck, 
were  clearly  focussed  by  Darwin,1  Wallace, 
Spencer,  and  Huxley,  through  whose  skill  and 
labours  the  continuity  of  the  web  of  life  was 
first  displayed  to  the  world  at  large.  The 
design  may  here  be  almost  elementary  in  its 
delicate  simplicity ;  there  its  subtle  intricacies  well- 
nigh  baffle  description.  The  variety  of  pattern 
is  marvellous  indeed,  as  Nature  weaves  with 
ceaseless  industry  the  woof  of  progressive  de- 
velopment. But  the  warp  of  this  wondrous  web 
is  nevertheless  continuous  throughout  its  length, 
uniting  the  whole  into  one  vast  fabric. 

This  basic  unity  of  all  manifestations  of  life 
has  been  further  substantiated  by  another  group 
of  scientists — Schleiden,  Schwann,  Kolliker,  and 
Virchow,  for  instance — who  gradually  and  con- 
clusively proved  the  identity,  in  their  simplest  form, 
of  those  living  bricks  (i.e.  microscopic  particles 
of  protoplasm)  from  which  the  whole  vast 
edifice  of  life  is  constructed.  The  capacity  they 

1  "  Darwinism  and  Human  Life,"  by  J.  Arthur  Thomson,  M.A.,  &c. 
(Andrew  Melrose.) 


212      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

possess  for  differentiation  in  their  functions  and 
in  modes  of  combination  long  masked  recognition 
of  the  fact  that  each  commonwealth  of  cells, 
whether  plant  or  animal,  is  developed  in  the 
first  instance  in  orderly  progression  from  a  similar 
minute  speck  of  protoplasm,  acceptation  of  which 
has  sufficed  to  bring  about  a  complete  revolution 
in  the  scientific  world.  To  these  discoveries  were 
shortly  added  Pasteur's  conception  of  the  nature 
and  causation  of  infective  diseases ;  a  knowledge 
which  brought  with  it  a  great  accession  of  power 
over  hitherto  mysterious  and  uncontrollable  con- 
ditions. And  finally,  man's  eyes  have  been 
opened  to  the  comprehension  of  Nature's  means 
of  self-defence  against  the  micro-organisms,  of 
disease.  Thus,  while  humanity  is  by  these 
means  armed  with  most  potent  weapons  against 
the  inroads  of  infection,  decay,  and  death,  the 
light  thrown  upon  the  mystery  of  the  origin 
of  each  individual  life  has  shown  man  his  true 
place  in  the  kingdom  of  nature.  The  applica- 
tion of  these  great  discoveries,  together  with 
increased  opportunity  for  and  accuracy  in  their 
utilisation,  constitute  the  basis  of  the  modern 
methods  of  hygiene. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  until  less  than 
a  century  ago  it  was  man's  custom  to  dissociate 
himself  wholly  from  the  less  highly  developed 
animals  and  plants  which  he  employed  so  freely 
for  his  support  and  convenience.  He  set  himself 
on  the  highest  pinnacle,  as  it  were,  of  the  edifice 
of  life,  believing  himself  to  be  independent  of 


SANITARY   SCIENCE  213 

the  influences  by  which  the  rest  of  the  building 
was  dominated.  And  thus  through  countless  ages 
he  suffered,  languished,  and  died,  unconscious 
that  the  forces  he  had  learned  more  or  less  to 
control  in  husbandry  and  farmyard  were  in 
their  turn  controlling  him  in  the  conduct  of  his 
life.  Ignorant  alike  of  the  influences  of  his  own 
inherited  nature  or  of  those  of  his  environment, 
he  paid  no  heed  to  the  responsibilities  of  trans- 
mitting the  torch  of  life  undimmed  to  succeed- 
ing generations,  and  gave  no  thought  to  utilising 
to  his  own  personal  perfecting  the  resources  of 
Nature,  which  he  habitually  employed  to  increase 
his  wealth  or  to  improve  his  crops  and  stock. 

It  was  indeed  to  the  control  of  his  surround- 
ings that  man  first  gave  more  or  less  careless 
heed.  The  fact  that  environment  can  either 
stimulate  or  stunt  both  physical  and  mental 
powers,  thrust  itself  too  persistently  on  his  atten- 
tion to  be  ignored  ;  but  the  influence  of  a  good 
parentage  or  of  sound  ancestry  was  less  obvious, 
and  for  generations  received  little  or  no  attention. 
Vague  talk  on  "  family  temper,"  ft  family  habits," 
"  family  voices "  was  common  enough,  but  no 
more  than  a  passing  curiosity  was  aroused  as  to 
their  hidden  import,  nor  was  their  profound  signifi- 
cance suspected. 

Thus,  though  half  a  century  has  passed  since 
Darwin  placed  man  1  "  in  his  proper  position  in 
the  sequence  of  biological  forms,"  during  which 
interim  enormous  strides  have  been  made  in 

1  "  The  Descent  of  Man,"  by  Charles  Darwin.     (J.  Murray.) 


214     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

applying  to  the  betterment  of  human  existence 
the  principles  found  to  hold  good  in  the  case  of 
lowlier  type  of  life,  public  sentiment  has  so  far 
only  supported  sanitary  reforms  directed  to  the 
promotion  of  improved  environment.  And  this  in 
spite  of  Sir  Francis  Galton's l  first  appeal  in  the 
cause  of  eugenics  more  than  forty  years  ago.  The 
distinguishing  characteristics  of  progressive  races 
and  the  right  of  every  unborn  child  to  be  the  off- 
spring of  healthy,  self-respecting,  virtuous  parents 
have  been  repeatedly  pointed  out ;  while  attention 
is  drawn  to  the  accumulating  evidence  in  favour 
of  the  fact  that  of  all  influences  upon  the  individual 
his  inherited  nature  is  the  most  powerful.  Yet 
the  public  ear  remains  deaf  to  the  cry  that  the 
present  generation  is  largely  responsible  for  the 
weal  or  woe  of  their  children's  children. 

This  is  not  the  place  in  which  to  discuss 
Darwin's  theory  of  heredity  nor  its  subsequent 
elaboration  and  amplification  by  his  contemporaries 
or  successors.2  But  the  time  is  come  when 
emphasis  must  be  laid  upon  the  duty  of  gaining 
some  general  acquaintance  with  the  subject 
and  its  applications  in  the  case  of  an  Imperial 
people. 

It  may  be  also  well  to  point  out  that  pessimism 
is  not  necessarily  associated  with  the  fruits  of  the 
studies  carried  on  by  our  students  of  inherited 
qualities,  such  as  Sir  Francis  Galton  or  Professors 
Thomson,  Bateson,  Karl  Pearson,  and  others ; 

1  "Hereditary  Genius,"  by  Sir  Francis  Galton. 
-  "Heredity,"  by  Prof.  A.  Thomson.     (J.  Murray.) 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  215 

only  their  results  give  us  reason  to  pause,  for 
they  cannot  lightly  be  disregarded.  They  tell 
us  that  we  hold  in  our  hands  to-day  the  mental 
vigour  and  bodily  powers  of  an  untold  number 
of  descendants,  therefore  it  behoves  us  to  con- 
sider our  ways  and  be  wise  while  there  is  yet 
time.  For  our  encouragement  also  be  it  known, 
that  while  the  lamp  of  modern  hygiene  illumi- 
nates the  errors  of  the  past,  it  sheds  its  bright  rays 
over  the  paths  of  the  present,  and  penetrates  to 
some  extent  the  dim  twilight  of  the  future. 

II.    FACTORS  ADVERSE  TO  HUMAN  PROGRESS 

It  is  a  matter  for  regret  that  the  sympathetic 
consideration  for  the  sufferings  of  others,  which 
found  such  grand  exponents  in  John  Howard,  in 
Elizabeth  Fry,  and  in  thousands  more  since  modern 
methods  of  philanthropy  were  initiated  in  the 
eighteenth  century,1  has  tended  latterly  to  lose 
its  virility.  It  is  giving  place  to  a  maudlin  senti- 
mentality, which  seeks  not  only  to  preserve  life  at 
all  costs,  but  to  permit,  nay  to  encourage,  the 
production  of  a  quality  of  human  life,  so  defective, 
so  devitalised,  that  it  threatens  to  minimise  the 
multiplication  of  the  fit,  by  taxing  them  to  their 
detriment  with  the  care  and  support  of  the  unfit. 
So  to  smooth  the  path  of  the  weakly  and  unsound 
as  to  put  a  premium  on  their  fertility  is  false 
philanthropy  and  faulty  hygiene  ;  for  it  is  well  to 

1  "English   Sanitary   Institutions,"  chap,  viii.,   "The   Growth  of 
Humanity  in  British  Politics."     Sir  J.  Simon.     (Cassell  &  Co.) 


2i6      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

remember  that  reasonable  exertion  is  beneficial  to 
health  ;  that  to  overcome  obstacles  is  stimulating 
to  the  energetic  ;  that  some  struggle  for  the  means 
of  livelihood  calls  forth  resourcefulness  and  adapt- 
ability in  the  intelligent.  Success  in  the  battle 
of  life  comes  to  those  made  of  stuff  equal  to  the 
wear  and  tear  of  daily  existence,  and  possessed  of 
the  qualities  which  conduce  to  progress.  These 
are  they  who  are  competent  to  perpetuate  the  best 
qualities  of  a  good  stock  ;  these  should  be  the 
chosen  bulwarks  of  a  nation's  progress  ;  nor  must 
their  numbers  be  swamped  by  the  ailing,  the 
crippled,  the  defective,  and  the  insane. 

A  proportion  probably  of  some  of  the  deeply 
seated,  complicated,  social  problems  which  have 
presented  themselves,  unperceived  and  almost  un- 
consciously, are  the  outcome  of  a  one-sided  study 
of  hygiene  :  these,  combined  with  the  slow  growth 
of  social  science,  and  a  sickly,  easy-going  sus- 
ceptibility, have  been  allowed  to  obscure  the 
real  issues  of  many  well-intentioned  but  unwise 
and  ill-considered  philanthropic  measures.  The 
necessity,  the  urgent  necessity,  has  now,  however, 
arisen  for  the  bold  and  scientific  solution  of 
these  social  problems.  The  work  of  biologists, 
sociologists,  and  students  of  history  during  the  last 
ten  years  has  illuminated  the  whole  question  of 
race  progress  and  public  health  with  a  light  so 
powerful  and  clear  that  even  he  who  runs  can 
read  the  signs  of  the  times  by  its  clear  rays  ;  while 
to  the  millions  of  parents  and  guardians  whose 
lives  are  spent  in  the  care  of  children  and  home, 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  217 

its  brilliance  throws  into  high  relief  the  dignified 
responsibility  of  their  work,  its  far-reaching  worth 
and  enduring  influence,  as  well  as  the  fact  that 
for  its  adequate  performance  something  more  is 
necessary  than  a  bowing  acquaintance  with  modern 
sanitary  science. 

For  what  is  the  message  of  scientific  hygiene 
to  the  parent  and  householder  of  the  twentieth 
century  ?  Dr.  W.  H.  Burnham,  of  Clarke  Uni- 
versity, U.S.A.,  a  world-wide  authority  on  the 
subject,  has  formulated  this  message  for  us  into 
three  terse,  but  telling  and  suggestive,  commands. 

The  first  gives  solemn  warning  to  beware  of  fads 
and  of  the  many  popular  doctrines  which  are 
mediaeval  in  their  crudities  and  damaging  by  their 
unconsidered  acceptance. 

The  second  preaches  the  gospel  of  work  and 
self-control,  which  must  be  practised  in  this  as  in 
every  other  connection  where  progress  and  good 
results  are  desired. 

The  third  enforces  the  doctrine  of  cleanliness 
to  a  degree  as  comprehensive  as  it  is  unusual- 
cleanliness  in  person,  dwelling,  and  food  ;  in  air, 
water,  and  decoration  ;  in  occupation,  environ- 
ment and  morals  ;  the  work  of  home  hygiene  being 
to  secure  for  each  family  conditions  which  will 
permit  normal  and  unhampered  functioning  for 
all  the  organs  of  each  one  of  its  members  ; 
elasticity  and  pliancy  in  the  functions  being  a 
primary  characteristic  of  health. 

If  once  it  be  accepted  that  health,  capacity,  en- 
durance, and  energy  are  more  powerful  weapons 


318     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

for  a  progressive  people  than  are  sword  or  gun, 
obedience  to  these  commands  will  be  general 
and  their  results  enduring.  The  pages  of  history 
teach  us  that  each  nation  in  turn  has  exhibited 
these  qualities  at  its  zenith  of  success,  whether  it 
were  the  relatively  highly  civilised  inhabitants  of 
Greece  and  Rome,  or  the  barbarian  hordes  under 
Attila.  They  characterise  equally  each  group  of 
successful  pioneers,  whether  they  be  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers  of  the  sixteenth,  the  Huguenots  of  the 
seventeenth,  or  the  successful  colonist  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  When  however  their  cultivation  is 
neglected  the  force  of  the  life  current  of  a  people 
or  community  is  lost ;  the  mighty  river  of  a  nation's 
prosperity  dwindles  to  an  insignificant  streamlet  of 
mere  existence,  soon  to  be  lost  to  view  in  the 
morass  of  oblivion. 

To  what  general  causes  may  such  deterioration 
be  attributed  ?  Among  the  more  prominent  must  be 
mentioned  ignorance  of  man's  physical  natu/e  and 
of  the  nurture  essential  to  his  welfare  ;  subtle  forms 
of  self-indulgence  ;  lowered  standards  of  morality  ; 
enervating  luxury,  or,  in  some  cases,  so  severe  a 
struggle  for  existence  among  the  salt  of  the  popu- 
lation (the  upper,  middle,  and  professional  classes, 
superior  mechanics  and  artisans),  that  even  patriot- 
ism does  not  justify  a  quiverful  of  children.  But 
the  persistence  of  these  causes  is  a  national  calamity. 
It  is  the  science  and  art  of  hygiene  which  is  em- 
phasising their  disastrous  consequences.  No  longer 
in  its  infancy,  no  longer  a  mere  collection  of  fads, 
questionable  statistics,  and  empirical  doctrines, 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  219 

hygiene  is  prepared  to  inform  us  how  to  promote 
human  efficiency  in  every  relation  of  life — domestic, 
occupational,  social,  and  imperial.  Its  tenets  are 
firmly  based  upon  a  goodly  group  of  sciences,  and 
their  utilisation  call  into  play  a  whole  range  of 
arts.  Its  theories  find  confirmation  in  the  social 
problems  of  the  day,  and  the  experience  gained 
from  their  tentative  and  partial  application  affords 
sound  evidence  of  their  worth  to  the  world.  The 
"  expectation  "  of  life,  for  instance,  has  been  ex- 
tended ten  years  in  half  a  century  ;  in  twenty 
years  the  death-rate  has  decreased  thirty  per  cent. 
Disease  has  been  found  in  most  instances  to  be 
controllable,  and  has  been  controlled ;  unhealthy 
occupations  have  had  their  dangers  curbed  if  not 
entirely  banished,  and  the  lot  of  many  has  been 
immeasurably  brightened.  Yet  the  weak  joints 
in  the  nation's  harness  are  gaping,  and  the  vigour 
and  virility  of  the  masses  appear  to  be  diminishing. 
Again  we  ask,  Why  ? 

III.  STAGES  IN  THE  GROWTH  OF  SANITARY 
SCIENCE 

The  answer  may  be  found  by  reference  to  the 
late  Professor  de  Chaumont's  now  classical  outline 
of  the  stages  to  be  identified  in  the  hygienic  edu- 
cation of  a  race.  He  divided  these  into  three 
periods,  of  which  he  described  the  first  as  merely 
"  Instinctive,"  for  efforts  after  sanitary  practice 
were  dictated  solely  by  the  personal  discomfort 
associated  with  their  neglect.  In  those  far-off 


220     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

prehistoric  days,  Professor  Boyd  Dawkins  tells  us 
that  primitive  man,  then  in  his  nomadic  stage, 
would  dig  runnels  to  carry  off  the  rain  water  from 
the  near  neighbourhood  of  his  shelters,  or  would 
move  on  to  fresh  pastures  when  his  family  and 
herds  had  fouled  the  nearest  stream,  or  change 
his  camping  ground  when  the  accumulated  refuse 
of  his  food  and  his  prowess  as  a  hunter  interfered 
with  convenient  access  to  his  dwelling ;  but  he 
took  no  precautions  to  prevent  the  recurrence  of 
these  discomforts,  and  his  efforts  to  remove  their 
consequences  were  purely  temporary. 

To  this  there  succeeded  what  Professor  de 
Chaumont  designated  the  "  Supernatural  "  period,1 
which  extended  over  many  thousands  of  years, 
during  the  dawn  of  which  Eastern  rulers  often 
combined  in  their  own  person  the  triple  callings 
of  priest,  prophet,  and  physician.  Whether  it  be 
in  China  or  in  Persia,  in  Egypt  or  in  India, 
among  the  Greeks,  the  Arabs,  or  the  Hebrews, 
the  practice  of  physical  morality  and  of  personal 
cleanliness,  of  restrictions  of  diet  or  protection 
from  infection,  were  closely  woven  into  the  re- 
ligion of  the  people.  Reasons  of  health  and  sani- 
tary advantages  permeate  the  rules  of  more  faiths 
than  that  of  the  Jews — whose  Lawgiver  embodied 
in  the  Pentateuch  health  maxims  now  known  to 
have  been  derived  from  earlier  civilisations. 

But,  remarkable  and  interesting  as  are  the 
ancient  sanitary  codes  to  a  generation  which 

1  Les  Pouvoirs  en  Mattere  d?  Hygiene — Part  i.   L?  Hygiene  dans  les 
Legislations  del' Antiquite.     Alfred  Filassicr.     (Paris  :  Jules  Rousset.) 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  221 

professes  to  believe  in  the  necessity  for  hygienic 
practice,  their  usage  was  tinctured  from  the  first 
by  a  mass  of  superstition.  Tradition  and  fatalism 
hampered  true  consistency  between  faith  and 
works  ;  the  often  sound  regulations  suffered  from 
their  empirical  foundations.  Constant  warfare, 
varied  by  alternations  of  luxury  with  asceticism, 
combined  to  absorb  men's  minds  and  to  pervert 
their  common  sense,  so  that  plague  and  famine, 
disease  and  penury,  were  superstitiously  regarded 
as  discipline  from  the  Deity,  not  to  be  averted  or 
avoided,  but  rather  to  be  accepted  as  a  chastise- 
ment prompted  by  love.  The  creed  that  to  save 
suffering  to  the  vile  body  might  risk  the  salvation 
of  the  soul,  cost  Europe  far  dearer  than  is  at  all 
generally  recognised  ;  for  the  noble,  the  pure, 
the  high-minded,  the  intellectual,  segregated  them- 
selves for  centuries  in  monastery  and  convent, 
in  the  firm  faith  that  by  denying  to  themselves 
the  joy  of  parenthood  they  promoted  the  spiritual 
welfare  of  their  country.  Ignorant  of  their  racial 
responsibilities,  they  left  as  progenitors  of  the  next 
generation  the  less  refined  and  ruder  elements 
in  the  population.  It  is  no  cause  for  surprise, 
therefore,  that  progress  in  sanitation  moved 
slowly.  Domestic  and  urban  conditions  were 
permitted  of  a  character  well  defined  by  the 
facts  that,  in  mediaeval  times,  a  man  of  forty-five 
or  fifty  was  considered  long  lived,  and  that  first 
attempts  to  control  disease  were  based  upon  com- 
mercial convenience  rather  than  upon  the  saving 
of  life. 


222     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

To  this  long  night  of  superstition  succeeded  the 
third  and  last  period,  known  as  the  "  Rational," 
of  which  the  first  dawnings  can  be  detected  even 
in  Plantagenet  days.  In  this  period  it  is  desir- 
able further  to  differentiate  three  stages  of  pro- 
gress— (a)  that  of  Development,  when  uneasiness 
made  itself  felt,  but  from  absence  of  knowledge 
efforts  at  reform  and  control  were  crude,  though 
often  intelligent  ;  (b)  the  stage  of  Legislation,  and 
(c)  the  stage  of  Freedom.1 

In  the  first  of  these,  for  instance,  Henry  III.' 
effected  an  improvement  on  any  former  practice 
by  bringing  water  to  the  city  of  London  in  pipes, 
made  by  boring  or  burning  a  channel  through 
the  trunks  of  large  trees.  Half  a  century  later, 
in  1297-8,  laws  were  promulgated  upon  the 
subjects  of  offensive  trades,  food  adulteration, 
and  wandering  pigs;  while  Richard  II.  imposed 
penalties  upon  those  guilty  of  fouling  rivers  and 
ditches.  Out  of  sight  out  of  mind,  however,  was 
the  sanitary  creed  of  this  and  many  succeeding 
generations,  so  that  too  often  the  apparent  gain 
of  the  moment  sowed  the  noxious  seed  of  intensi- 
fied subsequent  ills. 

Sir  John  Simon  has  pointed  out  that  it  was  not 
until  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  that 
hygiene  in  its  modern  significance  loomed  on  the 
social  horizon  with  clearer  outline  and  more 
definite  aims.  A  gradual  transformation  took 
place  in  the  next  hundred  and  fifty  years,  when 

1  "English  Sanitary  Institutions,"  part  i.  chap.  i.     Sir  John  Simon. 
(Cassell  &  Co.) 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  223 

the  national  records,  as  well  as  the  reports  of 
philanthropic  organisations,  indicate  the  gradual 
growth  of  a  public  opinion  which  presently  sought 
its  sanitary  salvation  in  legislation.  The  nine- 
teenth century  saw,  as  a  consequence,  the  ac- 
cumulation of  a  huge  mass  of  public  health 
laws,  designed  to  accomplish  reforms  where 
philanthropy  or  self-interest  had  failed  to  influ- 
ence habits. 

The  suggested  designation,  namely,  the  Legisla- 
tive, is  therefore  peculiarly  appropriate  for  this, 
the  second  stage  of  progress  in  the  third  period  of 
our  country's  hygienic  education.  To  legislation 
men  pinned  their  faith  as  the  most  potent  weapon 
of  reform.  From  the  first  most  inadequate  and 
ineffective  Factory  Act  of  1802  until  the  enact- 
ments of  the  last  parliamentary  session,  each  year 
has  seen  substantial  additions  made  to  the  grow- 
ing mass  of  sanitary  legislation,  which  has  become 
unwieldy  in  bulk  and  intensely  complicated  in 
machinery. 

Any  attempt  to  enumerate  even  a  few  of  the 
public  health  laws  which  crowd  our  statute  books 
would  here  be  tedious  and  out  of  place,  though 
the  community  in  general  ought  to  be  better 
acquainted  than  it  is  with  its  powers  and  obli- 
gations. For,  truth  to  tell,  fifty  years  of  public 
health  administration  has  proved  that  human  beings 
are  not  yet  consumed  with  a  sufficiently  strong 
desire  for  health  and  efficiency  to  be  willing  to 
change  objectionable  or  unwholesome  habits  or 
to  sacrifice  their  conception  of  comfort  at  the 


224     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

suggestion  of  officials.  Indeed  the  sterner  measures 
of  compulsory  conformity  were  so  necessary  to  the 
education  of  the  public  in  the  elements  of  healthy 
living,  that  the  year  1866  saw  the  commence- 
ment of  a  new  era  in  Public  Health  Department 
of  the  Government.  "  The  grammar  of  common 
sanitary  legislation/'1  writes  the  historian  of  our 
"  English  Sanitary  Institutions/'  "  then  first  ac- 
quired the  novel  virtue  of  an  imperative  mood." 
"  Must "  was  substituted  in  some  laws  for  "  may/' 
and  though  the  permissive  has  not,  even  in  fifty 
years,  entirely  given  place  to  the  peremptory,  the 
efforts  to  effect  individual  reform  by  Act  of 
Parliament  have,  since  the  formation  of  the 
Local  Government  Board  in  1872,  assumed  more 
importance  and  vigour. 

Since  that  date  the  reports  of  health  committees 
all  over  the  country  record  the  substantial  results 
of  persevering  work  in  the  interests  of  hygiene, 
qualified  by  the  fact  that  the  experience  of  other 
nations  has  been  abundantly  confirmed  by  our 
own,  namely,  that  it  is  futile  to  legislate  in 
advance  of  public  opinion.  Until  the  populace 
has  been  impregnated  with  a  knowledge  of  what 
is  right,  right  action,  though  demanded  by  its 
legislators,  will  be  perverted  by  ignorant  inten- 
tion or  by  resentful  indolence.  Even  those  who 
have  served  the  cause  of  sanitation  most  loyally 
recognise  that  coercion  is  but  a  poor  yeast  with 
which  to  leaven  measures  for  the  public  weal  ; 

1  ''English  Sanitary  Institutions,"  part  i.  chaps,  iii.,  iv.,  v.,  vi.     Sir 
John  Simon.     (Cassell  &  Co.) 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  225 

the  product  is  liable  to  become  sour  and  worth- 
less rather  than  wholesome  and  effective.  One 
higher  grade  must  be  passed  by  the  nation  under 
the  tutelage  of  a  sanitary  reform  before  its 
education  can  be  called  complete. 

The  final  stage  in  this  last  long  period  is 
described  by  Professor  de  Chaumont  as  that  of 
"  Freedom/'  of  which  the  attainment  is  not  possible 
until  action  is  based  on  intelligent  individual  con- 
viction. Then  and  then  alone  there  will  be  a 
general  recognition  that  lt  rights "  are  inevitably 
associated  with  responsibilities,  and  that  true 
liberty  is  followed  not  by  license,  but  by  self- 
control  and  respect  for  the  rights  of  others. 

IV.  WHY  THE  IDEALS  OF  MODERN   HYGIENE 
ARE   NOT   ATTAINED 

And  so  it  has  come  about  that,  with  this  ideal 
in  view,  the  methods  of  modern  hygiene  are 
directed  to  awaken  the  nation's  sanitary  con- 
science and  to  stimulate  the  growth  of  true  civic 
freedom.  These  methods  may  be  fairly  defined 
as  the  working  of  common  sense  aided  by  the 
results  of  scientific  research,  in  their  turn  sup- 
ported by  very  carefully  tested  applications. 
Necessarily  it  is  assumed  that  each  individual  will 
accord  to  them  intelligent,  personal  support  and, 
where  necessary,  will  be  willing  to  sink  unreason- 
able likes  and  dislikes  in  the  sea  of  social  service. 

Examples  of  the  enormous  benefit  inseparable 
from  well-considered  sanitary  legislation  could 

P 


226     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

be  multiplied ;  though,  on  the  other  hand,  it 
is  also  necessary  to  check  optimism  by  many 
illustrations  of  the  grievous  harm  still  being 
wrought  by  want  of  thought.  Hindrance  to 
possible  progress  is  also  associated  with  the 
ignorance  of  those  whose  development  has  not 
yet  attained  the  level  when  freedom  of  action 
can  be  permitted.  It  is  some  of  the  results  of 
this  ignorant  indolence  which  cause  the  minds 
of  the  thoughtful  and  far-sighted  to  be  tense  with 
anxiety  for  the  welfare  of  their  country,  and 
arouse  a  wish  for  further  and  more  stringent 
public  health  enactments.  Nevertheless,  again  it 
must  be  said  that  to  legislate  in  advance  of  public 
opinion  is  futile.  Only  after  stupendous  exertion, 
for  instance,  has  the  serious  and  continued  mor- 
tality among  infants  excited  general  attention ; 
and  the  curious,  widespread  indifference  to  the 
recommendations  of  recent  Royal  Commissions 
on  the  Poor  Law  and  the  Care  of  the  Feeble- 
minded indicates  that,  were  infant  mortality  con- 
trollable by  legislation,  such  legislation  would  still 
fail  of  its  object  unless  it  were  also  realised  that  a 
child's  hold  on  life  is  practically  dependent  upon 
parental  care,  and  is  intimately  associated  with 
maternal  nutrition  before  its  birth. 

Or  again ;  the  law  relating  to  the  protection  of  the 
public  food  supply  is  approaching  a  high  pitch  of 
excellence  ;  the  penalties  on  adulteration  or  on  the 
sale  of  diseased  or  otherwise  unwholesome  food- 
stuffs are  severe  and  quite  frequently  inflicted  ;  but 
these  regulations  are  powerless  to  influence  the 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  227 

errors  of  nutrition  constantly  reflected  in  the 
features  of  our  population  at  each  age  period, 
neither  can  they  stem  the  tide  of  self-indulgence, 
emotionalism  and  luxury  which  enervate  and 
deteriorate  thousands  of  our  people.  Vain  indeed 
are  their  endeavours  to  disguise  by  alcoholism 
and  drugs  the  traces  of  their  misfortunes.  Stern 
Nature  is  relentless ;  her  laws  are  as  those  of  the 
Medes  and  Persians ;  the  children's  teeth  shall 
be  set  on  edge  by  the  fruits  of  the  reckless  folly 
and  intemperance  of  their  ancestors. 

Is  sanitary  legislation  therefore  a  failure,  or  by 
what  means  can  light  from  the  sun  of  knowledge 
penetrate  this  dense  mass  of  ignorance  and  apathy  ? 
For  what  reason  has  it  opposed  such  a  resistant 
surface  to  the  manipulations  of  the  reformer  or  to 
the  coercions  of  the  official  ?  These  questions  do 
not,  unfortunately,  admit  of  concise  or  conclusive 
replies. 

Each  political  party  in  turn  points  the  finger 
of  reproach  and  derision  at  its  opponents  for  the 
modest  success  by  which  their  legislative  efforts 
at  social  reforms  are  attended.  Disease,  malnu- 
trition, alcoholism  and  overwork  continue  to 
hamper  their  efforts,  and  will  continue  so  to  do, 
until  a  sanitary  conscience  is  awakened  in  each 
breast,  at  an  age  when  habits  and  ideals  are  still 
unformed. 

There  is  no  royal  road  to  the  solution  of  these 
serious  problems.  They  call  for  infinite,  patient 
and  untiring  tact,  while  they  also  demand  the 
employment  of  many  and  varied  well-considered 


228     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

methods,  based  on  a  sound  foundation  of  sanitary 
and  social  science.  The  day  for  reform  by  theory 
is  over  ;  the  moment  for  practice  by  individual 
example  and  co-operative  effort  has  arrived. 


V.     SOME   CHARACTERISTICS   OF  MAN'S 
PHYSICAL  NATURE 

Before  proceeding  to  suggest  some  means  by 
which  to  increase  the  stability  of  the  national 
health  through  the  agency  of  family  life,  it  will 
be  advantageous  to  recall  the  advice  given  to 
students  of  any  form  of  life  by  Professor  Arthur 
Thomson  : — that  they  should,  before  attempting 
to  form  conclusions  as  to  its  nature,  submit  its 
constitution  to  analysis,  with  the  assistance  of 
what  he  described  as  the  biological  prism.  This, 
he  says,  will  throw  light  on  the  inherited  nature 
of  the  creature — the  capital,  so  to  say,  with  which 
it  is  endowed  at  birth.  It  will  illuminate  the 
functional  nature  of  its  parts,  and  will  reveal  what 
it  does  in  the  course  of  its  ceaseless  activities — 
nervous,  muscular  and  organic.  Further,  the 
prismatic  rays  will  render  visible  the  results  of 
some  of  the  influences  dependent  upon  the  en- 
vironment with  which  it  is  surrounded,  which  play 
upon  it  before  and  after  birth.  Unfortunately 
these  rays,  when  directed  to  human  nature,  can- 
not penetrate  so  deeply  nor  divulge  so  clearly  the 
secrets  of  this  the  highest  and  most  complex  form 
of  life,  as  they  do  when  directed  to  its  simpler  mani- 
festations. All  ordinary  difficulties  are  enhanced 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  229 

by  our  human  capacity  for  racial  admixture  and 
the  creation  of  an  artificial  environment. 

This  much,  however,  is  clearly  revealed  by  a 
partial  analysis.  Human  beings,  in  common  with 
all  life,  are  distinguished  by  the  power  of  move- 
ment, and  are  sensitive  to  many  forms  of  external 
stimulus : — heat,  cold,  electricity,  or  pressure. 
They  pass  their  lives  in  rhythmic  alternations  of 
activity  and  repose  ;  they  breathe  ;  they  absorb 
food  to  supply  energy  and  to  maintain  unimpaired 
the  substance  of  their  bodies  ;  they  excrete  waste 
products.  They  share  with  plants  and  animals 
an  intrinsic  tendency  to  continue  their  growth 
for  a  certain  period  and  up  to  a  definite  amount, 
while,  at  the  close  of  the  most  pronounced  period 
of  growth,  ability  to  transmit  life  absorbs  the 
energy  hitherto  utilised  for  personal  development, 
by  which  means  the  perpetuation  of  a  species  is 
secured.  Research  shows,  also  without  possibility 
of  question,  that  certain  similar  characteristics 
distinguish  the  mechanism  of  every  type  of  animal 
life ;  though  the  machinery  be  in  some  cases  of 
the  simplest,  in  others  highly  complex,  Thus 
have  been  revealed  many  secrets  of  man's  physical 
nature ;  as,  for  instance,  the  knowledge  that,  in  the 
earliest  stages  of  their  existence,  higher  forms  of 
life  recapitulate  more  or  less  imperfectly  certain 
far-off  ancestral  phases  of  development,  of  which 
living  specimens  are  still  to  be  found  on  the 
lower  branches  of  humanity's  huge  genealogical 
tree.  By  means  also  of  the  close  and  detailed 
observation  of  these  lowlier  organisms  a  clearer 


230     HOUSEHOLD   ADMINISTRATION 

conception  has  been  formed  of  the  intricacies  of 
growth  and  the  prolonged  process  of  development 
in  mankind.  Just  how  human  beings  have  come 
to  be  what  they  are,  mentally  and  morally  as 
well  as  physically,  is  a  still  unsolved  problem. 
There  are,  of  course,  many  missing  chapters  in 
the  long  story  of  life,  though  so  far  no  contra- 
dictions have  been  detected  in  its  arguments.  The 
sad  side  of  this  biological  lore  exists  in  the  now 
ascertained  fact  that  the  highest  intellectual  and 
moral  powers,  those  last  to  develop,  are  the  first 
to  suffer  arrest  or  to  die  away  when  the  organism 
is  subjected  to  premature  exhaustion  or  to  pre- 
cocious responsibility.  Predisposing  causes  are 
found  in  disease,  dissipation,  or  defective  nurture. 
Another  of  the  more  important  lessons  to  be 
learnt  from  the  pages  of  this  book  of  life's 
history  is  the  conservative  influence  of  the  law  of 
inherited  nature  ;  a  law  which  makes  for  the  pre- 
servation of  racial  types  by  suppressing  wide  de- 
viations from  the  normal.  A  familiar  illustration  of 
this  may  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the  children  of 
parents  of  great  height  or  of  very  short  stature 
usually  revert  to  the  average  of  the  race.  The  sig- 
nificance of  this  genetic  relation  in  maintaining  an 
efficient  people  was  unrecognised  until  quite  recent 
times,  and  though  valuable  evidence  is  accumulating 
on  the  descent  of  hereditary  character  in  mankind, 
no  definite  conclusions  have  yet  been  reached  on 
the  intensity  of  the  transmission  of  qualities.  It 
is,  of  course,  a  subject  of  intense  complexity,  the 
full  discussion  of  which  is  here  impossible.  In  the 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  231 

interests  of  future  generations  it  is,  however,  to  be 
wished  that  more  thought  were  given  to  the  con- 
clusions it  is  allowable  to  draw.  "  If,"  for  instance, 
says  a  recent  writer,  "  instead  of  allowing  the  race 
to  mate  at  random  we  selected  both  parents  for 
some  one  quality,  we  could  raise  the  intensity  of 
inheritance  and  establish  gradually,  by  continued 
selection,  a  strain  in  which  the  quality  reached 
a  value  much  higher  than  the  average  in  the 
original  mixed  race.  .  .  .  "  1  Thus  could  a  race  be 
strengthened  for  life's  calls,  or,  on  the  contrary, 
until  and  unless  the  people  are  awakened  to  the 
existence  and  bearing  on  their  national  security  of 
such  fundamental  hygienic  influences,  it  can  be 
emasculated.  No  such  selection  is  likely  ever  to 
dominate  human  marriages,  but  an  appreciation 
of  these  and  similar  facts  is  fundamental  to  national 
progress ;  and  in  time  the  dissemination  of  such 
knowledge  will  be  considered  a  parental  duty,  the 
more  urgent  since  the  resources  of  civilisation  and 
ill-regulated  sympathy  have  combined  to  brush 
aside  the  sterner  laws  of  nature,  so  that  the 
deteriorated  threaten  to  become  the  chief  pro- 
genitors of  the  next  generation. 

During  the  process  of  studying  the  abundant 
evidence  of  life's  progress  from  the  simple  to  the 
complex,  it  becomes  also  apparent  that  it  is 
affected  by  forces  other  than  heredity.  Recogni- 
tion of  the  ever-present  influence  of  these  potent  but 
often  disregarded  forces  makes  for  harmonious 
living,  whereas  their  neglect  is  associated  with 

1  "The  Family  and  the  Nation,"  chap.  i.    Whetham.    (Longmans.) 


232      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

heavy  penalties.  I  refer  to  the  capacity  for  in- 
dividual variation  from  the  racial  type ;  to  the 
modification  of  each  individual  by  his  or  her 
surroundings  ;  and  to  the  personal  predisposition, 
technically  described  as  diathesis,  which  influences 
the  reaction  made  to  every  form  of  stimulus.  Of 
these  three  forces,  the  first  is  the  result  of  an 
inborn  tendency  to  deviate  from  the  ancestral 
type  ;  an  orderly  process  with  a  definite  intention, 
by  no  means  a  mere  chance  fluctuation.  This 
certainly  makes  for  progress  as  well  as  for  in- 
terest in  life,  though  it  enhances  the  difficulties 
of  education,  because  it  demands  the  adaptation 
of  conditions  to  each  individual's  requirements. 
The  second,  the  law  of  modification,  takes  into 
account  the  influence  of  environment  upon  in- 
herited nature  ;  the  effects  of  climate,  and  food, 
for  example,  or  of  forms  of  occupation.  Pre- 
disposition is,  of  course,  a  personal  quality — a 
factor  of  primary  importance  in  our  susceptibility 
to  or  power  to  resist  disease  or  in  our  capacity 
to  withstand  adverse  conditions.  This  property 
is  responsible  for  the  greater  or  less  degree  of 
adaptability  to  new  conditions  possessed  by  each 
of  us,  and  is  concerned  with  our  power  to  live 
in  tune  or  at  discord  with  our  surroundings. 

Another  biological  law,  that  of  periodicity,1 
or  of  rhythmic  alternations  of  activity  and  rest, 
has  hitherto  often  suffered  among  human  beings 

1  "Selected  Essays  and  Addresses  by  Sir  James  Paget,  F.R.S."- 
"  The  Chronometry  of  Life,"  Royal  Society  Croonian  Lecture,  May 
1859.     Edited  by  Stephen  Paget,  F.R.C.S.     (Longmans  &  Co.) 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  233 

more  in  the  breach  than  in  the  observance  of 
its  tenets  ;  though  unquestionably  conformity  to 
its  requirements  makes  for  health  and  stability. 
Throughout  nature  habits  of  rhythmic,  organic 
activity  are  too  familiar  to  attract  attention.  Of 
these,  the  periodic  return  of  the  seasons,  for  in- 
stance, or  the  daily  tides,  the  flowering  of  plants 
and  the  ripening  of  fruit,  the  migrations  of  birds 
and  the  hibernation  of  certain  insects  and  animals, 
are  obvious  examples.  These  rhythms  have  been 
proved  by  experience  to  be  advantageous  in  the 
world.  They  make  for  efficiency  and  economise 
energy,  and,  from  their  high  degree  of  develop- 
ment in  man's  nature,  it  may  be  fairly  assumed  that 
to  him  their  observance  is  of  great  consequence. 
Many  of  them  are  beyond  his  control ;  such,  for 
example,  as  the  diurnal  variations  of  his  body  tem- 
perature, the  beating  of  the  heart,  the  call  of  hunger, 
or  the  rhythm  of  growth.  Others  he  can  observe  or 
abuse  according  to  his  pleasure ;  sleep,  for  instance, 
or  the  rhythm  of  work,  or  the  daily  discharge  from 
his  body  of  its  waste  products.1  It  is  the  work  of 
hygiene  to  demonstrate  how  to  combine  obedience 
to  all  these  laws  with  the  demands  of  modern  exist- 
ence, and  it  is  the  duty  of  man  to  conform  reason- 
ably to  modes  of  life  based  on  these  demonstrations. 
More  especially  does  responsibility  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  certain  rhythms,  such  as  sleep,  devolve 
upon  the  organiser  of  a  child's  early  life. 

*  "The  Diurnal  Course  of  Efficiency."    Howard  D.  Marsh.    (The 
Science  Press,  N.Y.) 


234     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

VI.   THE    ORIGIN    OF    FAMILY   LIFE   AND   ITS 
RELATIONSHIP   TO  SANITARY   SCIENCE 

Further  researches  into  the  records  of  the  past, 
and  a  closer  study  of  the  underlying  principles 
upon  which  humanity  has  formulated  many  gene- 
rally adopted  customs,  indicate  how  unexpectedly 
intimate  is  the  relation  between  the  growth  of 
a  social  organisation  and  the  origin  of  primitive 
efforts  after  the  preservation  of  life  and  health. 
The  world  at  large  is  so  accustomed  to  the  wide- 
spread existence  of  family  life  that  curiosity  is 
rarely  aroused  as  to  its  origin,  intention  and  worth  ; 
consequently  to  ignorance  of  its  significance  must 
be  attributed  the  assertion  that  the  custom  is  well- 
nigh  obsolete  and  the  proposal  of  some  would-be 
reformers  to  abolish  the  institution  and  to  instal 
the  State  in  loco  parentis. 

Professor  McDougall1  assures  us  that  such  is 
the  social  importance  of  the  family  that  all  who 
have  given  serious  attention  to  the  question  are 
agreed  that  the  stability  of  the  family  is  the 
prime  condition  of  a  healthy  state.  This  opinion 
is  supported  by  other  writers,2  who  have  em- 
phasised their  conviction  that  the  healthful  de- 
velopment of  the  individual — even  the  possibilities 
of  racial  progress — depend  to  a  large  degree  upon 
maintaining  intact  the  integrity  of  family  life. 

1  "  Social  Psychology,"  section  ii.  chap.  x.     William  McDougall. 
(Methuen.) 

2  "  The  Family,"  Lecture  i.     E.  C.  Parsons.     (Putnam.) 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  235 

Their  conclusions  are  based  upon  recent  re- 
searches into  the  sciences  of  biology,  sociology, 
and  economics. 

The  origin  of  this  relation  is  apparently  trace- 
able to  one  of  the  many  forms  of  human  asso- 
ciation which  have  proved  advantageous  in  the 
struggle  for  existence,  when  the  value  to  a  man 
and  his  wife  of  so  protecting  their  offspring  during 
childhood  that  there  should  be  later  on  an  array 
of  lusty  sons  and  industrious  daughters  thrust 
itself  on  their  notice.  The  division  of  strenuous 
work,  for  instance,  the  pursuit  and  preparation 
of  food,  the  effective  defence  of  their  rude  shelters 
against  the  depredations  of  their  foes,  were  sub- 
stantial advantages  to  be  derived  in  primitive  times 
from  the  possession  of  a  large  group  of  children. 
Upon  the  youthful  vigour  and  strength  of  their 
family  the  parents  could  rely  also  when  over- 
taken by  the  weakness  of  old  age  or  by  accident 
or  disease. 

These  economic  and  sociological  advantages 
were  so  early  appreciated  and  are  so  widely  adopted 
that  traces  of  family  life  are  to  be  detected  in  the 
history  and  customs  of  every  tribe  or  community 
hitherto  investigated.  The  bond  thus  formed, 
even  amongst  the  lowest  savages,  first  developed, 
then  strengthened  the  ties  of  natural  affection 
between  a  mother  and  her  children  and  prolonged 
its  emotional  existence.  In  the  case  of  the  paternal 
parent,  it  is  probable  that  the  motives  which 
incited  him  to  make  the  efforts  necessary  for  the 
protection  of  his  helpless  infants  might  more 


236     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

probably  be  found  in  the  desire  to  leave  an  avenger 
on  individual  enemies  and  a  feeling  that  funeral 
rites  would  be  duly  performed  after  his  death,  as 
well  as  his  tribe  strengthened  in  war. 

The  gradual  development  of  the  human  home 
has  been  admirably  described  by  more  than  one 
writer,  who  has  associated  its  evolution  with  the 
gregarious  instinct,  recognised  in  many  of  the 
higher  forms  of  animal  life.1  Within  reason, 
associated  numbers  represent  power — power  to 
preserve  the  progeny,  therefore  to  maintain  the 
numbers,  which  again  in  reason  make  for  social 
support  and  independence.  Power  for  defence, 
power  to  secure  an  adequate  supply  of  food  and 
ability  to  differentiate  occupations,  thus  dividing 
labour,  so  that  while  the  men  of  a  family  group 
were  engaged  in  war  or  the  chase,  their  women- 
kind  devoted  their  attention  to  the  creature  com- 
forts which  promote  health  and  efficiency — these 
are  all  factors  which  make  for  progress. 

VII.  WOMAN'S  VOCATION  IN  HOME  AND 
FAMILY  LIFE 

And  so  it  came  about  that  to  some  extent  woman's 
special  and  privileged  vocation  as  a  home-maker 
began  even  in  prehistoric  times.  Upon  her  it 
devolved  to  rear  the  children  she  bore ;  to  cook, 
to  mend,  to  make,  to  spin  and  dye  and  weave ;  to 
prepare  a  welcome  for  the  victor  and  to  minister 
to  the  sick  or  wounded.  No  sense  of  menial 

1  "The  Family,"  Lecture  ii.    E.  C.  Parsons.    (Putnam.) 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  237 

limitation  in  their  duties  was  apparent  among  the 
notable  women  of  the  past.  They  were  skilled 
workers,  capable  and  respected  managers,  under 
whose  direction  men  as  well  as  women  carried 
out  the  details  of  daily  work,  to  whose  care  in 
later  centuries  castle  and  garrison  were  entrusted 
in  the  absence  of  their  lords,  and  who  most 
evidently  assumed  this  responsibility  with  con- 
fidence and  success. 

The  changing  conditions  of  the  last  three 
centuries,  however,  reacted  in  many  ways  to  the 
detriment  of  women's  domestic  energies  and 
sapped  their  pride  in  the  vocation  of  housewife. 
Industrial  developments  took  much  occupation 
out  of  their  hands,  and  they  were  not  apparently 
concerned  to  undertake  others  more  in  conson- 
ance with  modern  life.  As  concentration  of  the 
population  in  large  centres  undermined  the  last 
survival  of  feudal  conditions,  the  strong  conser- 
vative instinct  of  women  made  it  hard  for  them 
to  adapt  themselves  and  their  households  to  re- 
vised methods : — to  substitute  "  new  lamps  for 
old,"  so  that  gradually  it  seems  women  became 
split  up  into  two  parties,  somewhat  out  of  sym- 
pathy one  with  the  other.  Adherence  to  the 
traditions  of  the  past  and  the  attractions  of  social 
life  distinguished  the  one  party  ;  a  restless  desire 
to  give  scope  to  their  whole  nature  and  to  work 
out  their  own  salvation  on  unconventional  lines 
possessed  the  other.  In  the  one  case  there  was 
no  desire  for  domestic  reformation.  What  methods 
could  be  better  than  their  great-grandmother's  ! 


238     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

In  the  other,  glimpses  of  what  seemed  a  far  wider 
and  more  intellectual  life  than  that  of  the  ordinary 
housewife  diminished  interest  in  the  physical  needs 
of  human  nature,  which  it  was  thought  made  no 
claims  on  mental  faculties,  and  of  which  the  daily 
care  was  constantly  associated  with  irksome  re- 
strictions and  a  position  of  financial  dependence. 

It  is  not  possible  here  even  to  outline  the 
numerous  social  and  commercial  innovations  which 
have  modified  every  side  of  daily  life  for  the  last 
two  hundred  years  ;  but,  when  inclined  harshly  to 
rebuke  women  for  some  of  their  now  almost  in- 
explicable blindness  to  these  changes,  it  is  well 
to  remember  that  the  flood  of  new  discoveries, 
new  inventions,  new  modes  of  transit,  new  forms 
of  occupation  and  amusement,  new  means  of 
money-making  and  fresh  excitements  imposed 
an  enormous  strain  upon  nervous  systems,  still 
but  slowly  adapting  themselves  to  the  stir  and 
stress  of  the  modern  world.  That  eyes  should 
be  temporarily  dazzled  by  the  brilliance  of  the 
"  wonderful  century " ;  that  the  first  results  of 
freedom  from  a  period  of  unnatural  restraint  should 
be  intoxication  with  liberty,  is  not  surprising. 
Full  of  encouragement  is,  however,  the  fact  that 
an  increasing  number  of  women  of  all  ranks  are 
engaged  to-day  in  efforts  to  direct  the  light  of 
modern  knowledge  to  the  betterment  of  human 
life  ;  the  movement  speaks  for  the  innate  sound- 
ness of  their  womanhood  and  for  their  realisation 
of  their  imperial  responsibilities.  Many  of  these 
efforts  are  still  unsystematised,  many  good  inten- 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  239 

tions  are  held  to  be  of  equal  worth  with  organised 
practical  knowledge  ;  many  women  are  alive  only 
to  the  needs  of  the  least  favoured  of  the  com- 
munity and  are  dead  to  the  urgent  calls  for  intelli- 
gent reforms  in  their  own  domiciles.  But  if  the 
willing  mind  be  there,  the  direction  of  the  work 
into  desirable  channels  will  slowly  though  surely 
follow.  It  is  most  certainly  unnecessary  to  pour 
every  girl  into  the  mould  of  a  conventional 
German  hausfrau  in  order  that  she  may  perceive 
the  inner  meaning  of  family  life.  God  fulfils 
Himself  in  many  ways,  and  diversity  of  training 
and  of  interests  is  as  beneficial  as  it  is  desirable. 
Neither  can  the  women  of  a  country  single-handed 
conserve  this  great  institution  of  family  life.  The 
loyalty  of  boys  and  the  co-operation  of  men  are 
imperative  to  its  preservation.  They  as  well  as 
their  mothers,  wives,  and  sisters  must  realise  its 
responsibilities  and  opportunities,  and  must  main- 
tain the  dignified  position  of  those  who  preside 
over  this  unit  of  community  life  ;  they  also  must 
respond  to  the  crying  need  for  its  adaptation  to 
the  requirements  of  modern  civilisation. 


VIII.  THE  FUNCTION  OF  THE  FAMILY  IN 
NATIONAL  LIFE 

Mrs.  Bosanquet l  has  told  us  that  the  most 
important  economic  function  of  the  family  to-day 
is  its  direct  control  of  the  prosperity  or  ruin  of 

1  "  The  Family,"  part  i.  chap.  ix.     Helen  Bosanquet.     (Macmillan 
and  Co. ) 


24o     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

nations ;  for  here  alone  are  found  in  combina- 
tion the  forces  which  determine  the  quantity  of  the 
population  with  the  forces  which  determine  its 
quality.  To  control  these  forces  offers,  to  say  the 
least,  a  life-work  for  countless  men  and  women. 
Both  parents  must  safeguard  the  character  of  their 
children's  inherited  nature  ;  both  sexes  are  more  or 
less  directly  or  remotely  concerned  in  the  provision 
of  a  suitable  environment  for  human  lives,  infant 
or  adult.  Under  the  circumstances  it  may  well  be 
a  matter  for  surprise  that  we  have  been  so  slow  to 
perceive  that  the  right  performance  of  these  duties 
demands  a  preliminary  study  of  the  art  of  preserving 
health  and  promoting  progress,  and  we  marvel  at 
the  placid  spirit  of  content  which  has  sanctioned 
the  conversion  into  a  stronghold  of  empiricism, 
the  very  place  where  a  sound  knowledge  of  pro- 
gressive sanitary  science  is  of  primary  importance. 
In  the  book  to  which  reference  has  been 
already  made,  Mrs.  Bosanquet  also  enumerates  the 
causes  which  in  her  opinion  militate  most  actively 
against  the  continuance  of  family  life  at  the  present 
day.  Among  others  she  mentions  evasion  of  re- 
sponsibility, self-indulgence  (with  which  we  are 
very  familiar),  reliance  upon  external  sources  of 
maintenance,  and  the  unequal  distribution  among 
the  members  of  a  family  of  the  burden  of  support. 
Further,  she  refers  to  the  unfortunate  failure  among 
parents  to  realise  that  the  old  Roman  customs  of 
parental  possession  and  filial  submission  are  out  of 
date  to-day,  and  calls  upon  the  wise  guardian  to 
substitute  others  which  lead  to  loyalty  and  love. 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  241 

The  new  movement  for  a  study  of  the  character- 
istics of  childhood  and  adolescence  should  materi- 
ally contribute  to  the  realisation  that  this  parental 
attitude  of  dominant  authority  must  be  now  asso- 
ciated with  and  modified  by  a  more  balanced 
understanding  of  the  phases  of  youthful  develop- 
ment and  of  the  intricacies  of  individual  tempera- 
ment. Convenience  has  hitherto  encouraged  the 
customary  regulation  of  a  group  of  young  lives 
as  if  they  were  one  and  the  same  individual,  no 
allowance  being  made  for  variation  in  character  or 
in  age,  in  propensities  or  in  health.  Each  nursery 
party  or  infant  school  serves  to  illustrate  the  point. 
Individual  tendencies  to  cold  or  to  fatigue,  to  nerve 
storms  or  to  indolence  ;  individual  capacities  in 
diet,  occupation  or  exercise,  must  be  intelligently 
respected  if  potentialities  are  to  become  actualities. 

In  the  well-conducted  home,  for  example,  a 
study  of  individual  character  must  in  the  future 
replace  cast-iron  discipline  or  easy-going,  child- 
spoiling  indulgence.  The  fact  that  the  early 
cultivation  of  good  habits  makes  for  healthful 
happiness  must  be  generally  appreciated  ;  and  the 
duty  of  the  home  to  provide  opportunity  for  the 
exercise  of  personal  tastes,  the  importance  of  train- 
ing as  a  relief  to  nervous  strain  and  as  the  best  means 
to  develop  resource  and  skill,  must  be  perceived. 
It  will  be  by  this  constant  understanding  super- 
vision in  early  years,  and  later  by  the  cultivation 
of  an  intimate  sympathetic  comradeship  with  his 
children,  that  the  modern  parent  will  retain  for 
his  country  the  cementing  force  of  family  life. 

Q 


242      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

IX.  THE   MEANING   OF   INFANCY 

The  great  discovery  of  John  Fiske  as  to  the 
reasons  for  the  long  continuance  of  childhood  in 
man  must  not  be  overlooked  in  this  connection  ; 
it  bears  so  directly  on  health  and  efficiency,  and 
is  closely  associated  with  the  importance  of  the 
family  to  the  individual  as  well  as  to  the  nation. 
Why,  it  may  be  asked,  is  man's  period  of  helpless- 
ness so  prolonged  ;  why,  when  his  brain  develop- 
ment reaches  so  high  a  standard,  is  he  for  years 
in  a  position  of  entire  dependence,  whereas  snakelet 
and  chick  are  practically  self-supporting  from  the 
hour  of  hatching  ?  When  the  lower  forms  of 
animal  life  are  compared  with  mankind,  the  non- 
existence  in  their  case  of  any  such  stage  as  infancy 
is  at  once  apparent.  They  are  brought  into  the 
world  able  to  take  care  of  themselves  and  to 
live  an  independent  individual  existence.  Young 
pigs  run  almost  as  soon  as  they  are  born,  young 
swallows  fly  directly  they  are  fledged. 

Now,  if  the  structure  of  lower  animals  be  ex- 
amined, it  will  be  found  that  they  have  no  central 
warehouse  corresponding  to  the  human  brain  for 
the  storage  of  new  sensations  or  for  an  elaborate 
and  original  response  to  them.  Each  such  animal 
repeats  the  life  of  its  parents  ;  each  responds  in 
exactly  the  same  way  to  the  contact  of  air,  of 
earth,  of  food,  or  of  water.  Their  activities,  it  is 
true,  are  distinguished  by  accuracy  and  despatch, 
but  the  offspring  of  a  hen  of  the  twentieth  century 
has  no  larger  capacity  for  the  variation  of  these 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  243 

activities  than  has  the  chick  which  was  hatched 
out  six  thousand  years  ago.  The  guinea-pig  of 
to-day,  for  example,  remains  mentally  at  the  level 
of  his  thousandth  ancestor.  Wherein  then  lies  the 
difference  between  the  pig  and  the  baby  ? 

As  animals  rise  in  the  scale,  as  their  brains 
become  more  subtle,  more  elaborate  in  struc- 
ture, their  actions  become  correspondingly  more 
numerous  and  complicated,  more  varied,  more 
individual.  The  nervous  systems  of  such  animals 
are  characterised  by  an  increasing  complexity 
of  development,  and  this  provides  the  machinery 
necessary  to  the  performance  of  an  increasing 
number  of  muscular  and  mental  co-ordinations  ; 
they  can  adapt  themselves  to  unfamiliar  sur- 
roundings and  possess  much  enhanced  advantages 
in  the  struggle  for  existence.  But,  associated 
with  these  advantages,  is  a  much  longer  period 
of  immaturity,  because,  where  the  capacity  for 
flexibility  and  progress  is  great,  the  antenatal 
period  is  insufficient  for  the  establishment  of  the 
necessary  nervous  connections  or  even  for  the 
development  of  the  brain  cells  between  which 
these  connections  will  be  formed.  The  chick  will 
have  its  full  plumage  in  ten  weeks,  but  mentally 
it  is  far  below  a  dog  or  a  monkey,  whose  period 
of  immaturity  is  much  longer.  Similarly,  the  dog 
attains  his  maturity  long  before  the  monkey,  who 
is  infinitely  his  superior  in  fertility  of  resource, 
power  to  learn  through  imitation,  and  capacity  for 
attention.  The  infant  in  its  turn  is  far  longer  in 
a  dependent  condition  than  the  highest  ape. 


244     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

Relatively  large  in  bulk  at  birth,  and  reaching 
usually  its  full  mass  in  the  first  fourteen  years  of 
life,  the  human  brain  possesses  throughout  child- 
hood vast  silent  areas,  big  with  future  potenti- 
alities, areas  in  which  the  cells  are  slowly  ripening 
to  function.  Even  after  full  growth  in  size 
is  reached,  many  more  years  must  pass  before 
capacity  for  the  higher  mental  functions  or  for  the 
complete  control  of  such  functions  has  developed. 
It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that,  throughout  this 
period  of  immaturity,  errors  of  nutrition  or  defec- 
tive stimulation  may  interfere  with  function.  One 
of  the  most  important  duties  of  the  home  is 
to  provide  the  suited  environment  for  its  child 
occupants  during  these  long  and  anxious  years. 
How  long  they  are  has  been  emphasised  by 
Dr.  Clouston,1  who  has  said  that,  of  all  the  periods 
of  brain  growth,  the  most  important,  as  regards 
the  development  of  our  highest  moral  and  mental 
potentialities,  is  that  between  eighteen  and  twenty- 
five  years  of  age,  when  the  capacity  for  self- 
control  should  be  coming  into  function  in  its 
highest  relations,  and  when  failure  to  ripen  in  due 
course  is  fraught  with  most  serious  consequences 
for  the  future. 

There  is  no  such  thing,  therefore,  as  infancy 
or  parental  care  in  the  lowest  orders  of  animal 
life  ;  of  which,  one  result  is  a  gigantic  mortality 
among  their  offspring.  Enormous  numbers  of 
eggs  are  laid  to  ensure  the  preservation  of 

1  "  The  Hygiene  of  Mind,"  chap.  iv.     T.  S.  Clouston.     (Methuen.) 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  245 

the  species  when  left  to  fend  for  themselves. 
The  turbot,  for  instance,  must  deposit  millions 
of  minute  glassy  ova  or  the  species  would  become 
extinct.  Even  among  frogs  the  destruction  of 
tadpoles  is  so  great  that  provision  must  be 
made  to  allow  for  this  loss.  The  fostering  care 
of  birds  for  their  young  at  once  permits  a  great 
reduction  in  the  number  of  the  offspring  ;  but, 
though  birds  give  evidence  of  some  capacity 
for  parental  care,  infancy,  as  such,  is  really 
confined  to  mammalian  young.  Even  here  it 
is  curtailed  in  a  vast  number  of  species  ;  but 
wherever  it  exists  it  stands  for  power  to  progress, 
and  represents  capacity  for  benefiting  by,  indeed 
depending  upon,  education,  if  only  in  the  simple 
form  of  learning  by  imitation — a  form  familiar  to 
readers  of  such  books  as  Long's  "  Schools  of  the 
Woods." 

Plasticity  is  the  hall-mark  of  progress ;  educa- 
bility  indicates  a  brain  more  or  less  competent 
to  assimilate,  to  remember,  to  compare,  to  dis- 
criminate. This  door  of  progress  has  been  merely 
set  ajar  for  even  the  higher  apes  ;  it  is  open  to 
man  only.  The  period  of  plasticity  is  evidently 
prolonged  in  proportion  to  the  degree  in  which 
conscious  intelligence  has  superseded  mere  brute 
force  in  promoting  successful  survival — that  is  to 
say,  the  transmission  of  mental  ability  rather  than 
of  physical  strength  postpones  maturity.  Man 
alone  possesses  in  full  the  powers  of  selection 
and  adaptation,  of  reason  and  of  emotion,  of 
memory  and  of  mental  originality,  which  are 


246     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

included  in  his  rich  heritage  of  life.  If  he  is 
to  realise  his  full  potentialities,  he  must  have 
protection  for  years  after  birth  and  an  extended 
time  for  development.  The  immature  infant 
must  be  fed,  sheltered,  and  stimulated,  if  the 
inherent  powers  of  adjustment  to  surroundings 
are  to  develop  normally.  But  so  great  is  the 
instability  associated  with  human  immaturity  and 
future  potentiality,  that  arrested  development  is 
too  often  the  heavy  penalty  paid  by  the  child 
for  the  ignorance  and  carelessness  of  his  parents.1 
Faults  of  food  and  clothing,  insufficient  warmth, 
cleanliness,  or  exercise,  premature  work  or  preco- 
cious responsibility  and  independence,  prolonged 
overstrain  or  insufficient  stimulation  of  mind 
and  body,  are  the  prevalent  causes  by  which  a 
child's  normal  growth  is  warped  and  prejudiced. 

1  "  Report  of  the  Inter-Departmental  Committee  on  the  Employment 
of  School  Children,  appointed  by  H.M.  Principal  Secretary  of  State 
for  the  Home  Department,"  1901. 

"  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission  on  Physical  Training  (Scotland)," 
1903,  Neill  &  Co.,  Ltd.,  Bellevue,  Edinburgh. 

"Report  of  the  Inter-Departmental  Committee  on  Physical  Deteri- 
oration," 1904. 

"  Report  of  the  Inter-Departmental  Committee  on  the  Model  Course 
of  Physical  Exercises,"  1904. 

"Report  of  the  Inter-Departmental  Committee  on  Medical  Inspec- 
tion and  Feeding  of  Children  attending  Public  Elementary  Schools," 
1905. 

"  Report  of  Dr.  W.  Leslie  Mackenzie  and  Captain  A.  Foster  on  a 
Collection  of  Statistics  as  to  the  Physical  Condition  of  Children  attend- 
ing the  Public  Schools  of  the  School  Board  for  Glasgow,"  1907. 

"  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission  on  the  Care  and  Control  of  the 
Feeble-minded,"  1908. 

' '  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission  on  the  Poor  Laws  and  the 
Unemployed — Majority  and  Minority,"  1909.* 

*  In  each  case,  unless  otherwise  mentioned,  these  Reports  are  published 
by  Wyman  &  Sons. 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  247 

Where  this  occurs  he  never  enters  into  his  birth- 
right of  power  ;  it  has  too  often  been  thoughtlessly 
bartered  by  his  natural  guardians,  literally  for  a 
mere  mess  of  pottage. 

X.  CAUSES   WHICH   MENACE   HEALTHFUL 
INFANCY   AND   CHILDHOOD 

Perhaps  one  of  the  greatest  inconsistencies  of 
an  inconsistent  nation  lies  in  the  fact  that  the 
extraordinary  ignorance  of  the  elementary  needs 
of  a  tender  infant  is  not  confined  to  one  section 
of  society  ;  it  is  found  in  Belgravia  as  well  as  in 
Bermondsey.  Thus,  though  the  chief  sources  of 
the  tuberculosis  which  is  responsible  for  the 
presence  of  45  per  cent,  of  the  children  in  the 
London  Invalid  Schools  are  confined  to  the  homes 
of  the  poorer  classes,1  inquiries  into  the  incidence 
of  rickets  among  children  in  Glasgow  show  a 
higher  percentage  of  cases  in  the  families  of 
mechanics  than  of  labourers  2 — a  clear  illustration 
that  ignorance  and  not  poverty  is  here  the  predis- 
posing cause.  Impure  air  and  stuffy,  ill-ventilated 
rooms  are  concerned  in  the  susceptibility  to  both 
diseases,  as  is  also  malnutrition  with  its  associated 
diminution  of  the  innate  powers  of  self-protection. 
But,  in  the  one  case,  inability  to  provide  suitable 
food  is  the  general  cause  ;  while  in  the  other, 

1  "The  Hygiene  School  of  Life,"  chap.  viii.  p.  129.     Ralph  H. 
Crowley.     ( Methuen. ) 

2  Journal  of  the  Royal  Sanitary  Institute,  April  1905 — "  Physical 
Inspection  of  School  Children  in  Relation  to  Public  Health  Adminis- 
tration."    A.  K.  Chalmers,  M.D.,  M.O.H.,  Glasgow. 


248      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

inexcusable  ignorance  of  the  right  forms  in  which 
food  should  be  supplied  to  young  children  is  a 
certain  source  of  the  evil. 

The  thought  is  pathetic,  for  the  causes  are 
wholly  preventable.  Pitiful  also,  because  less 
excusable,  is  the  grievous  injury  to  health  associ- 
ated with  a  mouth  full  of  rotten  teeth,  permitted 
as  it  is  among  families  possessed  of  sufficient 
means  to  meet  the  cost  of  cure,  who  prefer  to 
spend  their  money  upon  dress  and  amusement, 
or  among  the  members  of  which  necessary  endur- 
ance of  a  trifling  shock  has  not  been  cultivated. 
Were  the  foulness  of  the  discharge  from  a  carious 
tooth  to  be  externally  visible,  the  aesthetic  instinct 
among  the  refined  would  clamour  for  prompt 
treatment ;  but,  unfortunately  for  health,  the  results 
of  the  disease  are  concealed,  and  consequently 
condoned. 

Again  :  light,  sunshine  and  quiet  are  now  known 
to  be  essential  to  physical  development  and  to  the 
possession  of  a  sound  nervous  system  ;  the  state- 
ment amounts  to  a  platitude,  for  is  not  every 
wealthy  invalid  despatched  to  complete  conval- 
escence by  the  sea  or  in  the  country,  and  is  not 
the  custom  of  a  general  annual  holiday  due  largely 
to  the  conscious  benefits  derived  from  an  open-air 
life  far  from  the  bustle  of  towns  ?  Yet  physical 
morality  is  so  poorly  developed  that  the  atmosphere 
of  suburban  as  well  as  urban  districts  is  per- 
manently obscured  by  the  preventable  and  waste- 
ful results  of  imperfect  combustion,  though  the 
detriment  is  incalculable  to  those  whose  lives  see 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  249 

no  change  of  air.  The  ceaseless  rumble  of  noisy 
traffic,  allowed  to  disturb  the  rest  of  thousands,  or 
more  probably  of  millions,  of  our  population,  is 
another  factor  responsible  for  the  prevalence  of 
unstable  nerves  and  of  ill-balanced  brains.  It 
assumes  great  gravity  when  it  is  realised  that 
among  these  sleepers  are  numbered  the  children 
whose  hours  of  rest  are  already  most  seriously 
curtailed. 

Another  sin  against  childhood  bears  long  en- 
during fruits.  I  refer  to  the  terrible  results  upon 
the  lives  of  those  infants  who  survive  efforts  to 
prevent  their  birth.  The  fact  ought  to  be,  if  it 
is  not,  common  knowledge  ;  yet  the  sale  of  the 
infamous  drugs,  necessary  to  the  crime,  by  penny- 
worths, in  every  drug-store,  is  tacitly  sanctioned 
by  the  community. 

Professor  Sadler's 1  determination  to  direct 
attention  to  the  requirements  of  our  adolescents 
has  aroused  such  response,  that  excuse  is  now 
impossible  for  ignoring  the  detrimental  effects  upon 
young  people  of  unskilled,  exhausting  "  blind  alley  " 
work,  or  of  removing  prematurely  the  restraint 
of  moral  discipline  and  systematised  training.2 
Statistics  show  not  only  the  economic  disasters 
which  result  from  the  unsatisfactory  methods  of 
past  years  ;  they  bring  home  also  the  steady  in- 
crease in  the  percentage  of  the  proportion  of 
nervous  instability  as  well  as  of  anaemia,  which 

1  "  Continuation  Schools  in  England  and  Elsewhere."    M.  E.  Sadler. 
(Manchester  University  Press,  1907.) 

2  Report  of  Departmental  Committee  on  "  Employment  of  Children 
Act,  1903."     (Wyman  &  Son,  July  1910.) 


250     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

interfere  with  the  form  of  brain  growth  so  rapid 
in  adolescence  (namely,  increase  in  complexity  of 
association,  and  in  power  to  inhibit,  to  reason,  and 
to  concentrate).  Another  result  of  these  investi- 
gations is  to  draw  attention  to  the  increase  in 
organic  heart  disease,  which  has  been  shown  to 
occur  in  more  than  thirty  per  cent,  of  the  London 
errand  boys  who  are  engaged  in  prolonged  work 
on  Saturdays,  as  well  as  in  out-of-school  hours 
during  the  week.1 

Should  not  parents  inform  themselves  diligently 
on  these  matters  ?  for  there  are  warnings  and  to 
spare  from  physician  and  educationalist  upon  this 
reckless  wreckage  of  the  nation's  most  valuable 
asset.  It  was  pointed  out  ten  years  ago  that 
the  imposition  of  adult  duties  upon  the  child, 
or  even  upon  the  young  adolescent,  is  the 
most  effective  machinery  for  the  manufacture  of 
the  unemployed  and  the  unemployable.  Only 
now,  however,  are  bye-laws  being  sanctioned 
which  impose  at  all  adequate  restrictions  upon 
child  labour.  For  a  longer  period  the  steady 
migration  of  the  rural  population  from  country  to 
towns  has  been  bemoaned,  as  coupled  with  the 
risk  lest  the  deterioration  of  the  individual  decline 
into  the  degeneration  of  the  race.  Nevertheless, 
in  spite  of  the  sustained  efforts  of  the  Rural  Housing 
Association  and  of  private  individuals,  the  housing 
problem  still  lies  at  the  root  of  some  at  least  of 
this  exodus.  Miserable  and  inconvenient  as  are 

1  "  Report  to  the  L.C.C.  Education  Committee  of  the  Medical  Officer 
(Schools),"  March  31,  1906.     (P.  J.  King  &  Son.) 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  251 

hundreds  of  our  cottages,  their  number  is  still 
insufficient  in  many  places  to  meet  the  demand  ; 
so  perforce  the  young  people  of  marriageable  age 
must  go,  or  the  elementary  code  of  decency  must 
be  violated. 

The  curse  of  alcohol,1  too,  lies  heavy  on  our 
land  ;  it  shortens  life,  incapacitates  for  work,  im- 
poverishes and  degrades ;  visits  in  innumerable 
forms  the  sins  of  the  parents  upon  their  innocent 
yet  grievously  afflicted  children  ;  promotes  crime 
and  perverts  judgment.  Each  year  brings  more 
statistical  and  biological  evidence  of  its  enduring 
and  deteriorating  effects  upon  humanity.  It  seems 
strange,  therefore,  that  the  law  to  insist  upon  the 
provision  of  an  adequate  water  supply  for  every 
dwelling  remains  entirely  insufficient  to  meet  the 
most  urgent  needs  of  many  town  streets  as  well 
as  country  villages.  Cleanliness  is  consequently 
impossible,  and  the  public-house  must  be  per- 
force frequented,  for  it  provides  a  beverage  more 
palatable  and  perhaps  as  wholesome  as  the 
cottager's  nearest  supply. 


XL  THE  SOURCE  OF  THESE  CAUSES  TO  BE 
FOUND  IN  FAULTY  ADMINISTRATION  OF 
THE  HOME 

May  not  the  causes  of  some  considerable  pro- 
portion of  this  apathy  be  traced  to  a  want  of 
popular  faith  in  the  teachings  of  hygiene  ?  Is 

1  "The    Drink    Problem,"     edited    by    T.    N.    Kelynack,   M.D. 
(Methuen.) 


252      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

not  one  source  of  the  prevalent  unbelief  in  its 
tenets  to  be  found  in  the  widespread  ignorance 
of  the  right  administration  of  human  life  in  the 
home,  which  turns  out  therefore  a  product  of  un- 
healthy, inharmonious  citizens,  who  are  a  source 
of  weakness  to  their  country  and  a  menace  to 
civilisation  ?  How  could  it  be  otherwise  ?  If  the 
cradle  of  life  be  defective,  and  its  occupants  be 
debilitated,  it  is  not  the  nurslings  alone  upon 
whom  the  penalties  will  fall ;  whereas  if  home 
administration  be  guided  by  intelligence,  and 
the  quality  of  the  inmates  be  high,  individual 
and  national  prosperity  are  assured.  The  burden 
of  responsibility  or  the  privilege  of  promoting 
progress  (according  to  the  spirit  in  which  obliga- 
tions are  assumed)  rests  with  those  who  propose 
to  be  or  already  are  parents ;  they  being  in- 
fluenced in  their  turn  by  the  educational  and 
social  conditions  of  their  surroundings.  Parental 
care  and  intelligent  home  management  arc  thus 
intimately  concerned  with  the  physical  evolution 
of  the  race,  as  well  as  with  its  moral  develop- 
ment. They  must,  therefore,  assume  an  increasing 
rather  than  a  diminishing  importance,  if  the  full 
development  of  potentialities  is  to  be  insured 
in  the  rising  generation,  and  racial  progress  pro- 
moted. Any  proclivity  to  depreciate  the  dignity 
or  to  undermine  the  influence  of  these  institutions 
must  be  carefully  examined  and,  if  necessary, 
sternly  repressed. 

The    fact   that   such  tendencies   show   signs  of 
sprouting  is,  it  seems  to  me,  a  serious  reflection 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  253 

upon  the  parental  and  domestic  methods  of  the 
day.  There  is  no  smoke  without  fuel  ;  faults 
are  rarely  all  on  one  side ;  the  young  are  not 
necessarily  always  in  the  wrong ;  therefore,  a 
course  of  self-examination  into  their  methods 
and  motives  may  be  a  wholesome  and  fruitful 
discipline  for  those  who  are  responsible  for  the 
nature  and  nurture  of  our  children,  and  for  the 
stability  and  efficiency  of  adolescent  and  adult. 
The  absence  of  elasticity  and  adaptation  to 
modern  requirements  among  the  elders  of  a 
family  is  often  responsible  for  miserable  homes, 
and  for  much  arrested  development  in  their 
inmates. 


XII.  HARMONIES  AND  DISHARMONIES  IN 
HUMAN  LIFE 

Such  a  condition  of  affairs  is,  however,  no 
longer  to  be  tolerated  ;  for  the  result  of  research 
carried  out  during  the  past  and  present  centuries 
has  opened  up  a  hitherto  unsuspected  vista  of 
progress  to  mankind,  if  and  when  he  is  intelligent 
enough  to  establish  an  harmonious  unison  be- 
tween himself  and  his  environment.  Once  the 
jarring  discords  of  debility,  disease,  and  deteriora- 
tion have  been  modulated  into  the  major  chords 
of  health — moral  and  physical — the  latent  poten- 
tialities of  his  higher  life  will  be  quickened 
into  productive  activity.  The  misconception  of 
humanity  which  has  denied  to  it  the  power  to 
rise  above  the  level  of  present  attainments,  which 


254     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

has  dwelt  insistently  upon  the  hopeless  degrada- 
tion of  the  body,  has  brought  about  a  condi- 
tion of  enervating  and  passive  fatalism,  based 
upon  the  conviction  that  all  reforming  efforts 
must  be  directed  solely  to  the  preparation  of 
one  part  only  of  man's  triune  nature  for  another 
and  future  sphere  of  existence.  The  duty  and 
possibility  of  building  a  fit  temple  for  man's 
spiritual  nature  here  and  now  is  the  ideal 
of  a  minority  to-day  —  in  the  future  it  will 
be  that  of  an  overwhelming  majority  ;  for  the 
proofs  of  human  capacity  for  progress,  of  man's 
power  to  control  the  forces  of  nature,  are  ever 
becoming  more  firmly  authenticated,  and  all 
that  they  imply  will  soon  become  far  better 
understood. 

Though  our  knowledge  of  the  subject  is  still 
incomplete  and  often  tentative,  much  progress 
has  been  made,  for  instance,  in  a  correct  con- 
ception of  the  means  by  which  the  physiological 
balance  of  human  life  is  adjusted,  since  Metchni- 
koff1  drew  attention  to  the  interference  brought 
about  in  man's  normal  development  by  certain 
fundamental  disharmonies  in  his  constitution,  of 
which  the  end  is  premature  death,  if  not  a 
pathological  old  age.  It  is  quite  evident  that 
unjustifiable  encroachments  upon  the  reserve 
powers  of  the  human  body  have  been  commonly 
permitted  hitherto,  and  though  each  year  brings 
fresh  proof  of  the  extraordinary  endowment 

1  "  The  Nature  of  Man,"  parts  i.  ii.  chap.  vii. ;  part  iii.  chap.  xii. 
Metchnikoff.     (Heinemann.) 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  255 

which  it  possesses  to  respond  to  the  demands 
made  upon  it,  yet  each  year  also  confirms 
the  conviction  that  this  reserve  fund  must  in 
future  be.  husbanded  and  used  with  economy. 
When  these  powers  are  constantly  drawn  upon 
the  body  is  necessarily  reduced  to  a  lower  level 
of  health.  If  the  metaphor  be  employed  of 
the  body  as  a  building  in  course  of  erection,  it 
becomes  obvious  that  if  one  of  a  group  of  con- 
verging thrusts  be  much  weakened  or  withdrawn, 
a  skilful  rearrangement  of  forces  may  meet  the 
strain,  but  the  total  strength  of  the  structure  is 
reduced.  In  how  many  cases  has  the  temple  of 
a  child's  body  been  permanently  damaged  by 
such  withdrawals,  or  how  many  adolescents  are 
launched  into  life  with  their  capital  of  health 
seriously  diminished  by  premature  calls  upon  its 
resources. 

The  duty  to  maintain  so  far  as  possible  a  con- 
dition of  physiological  equilibrium  in  ourselves 
and  in  our  children  amounts  to  an  obligation  ; 
for  which  reason  health  promotion  during  the 
plastic  period  of  early  life  assumes  a  new  import- 
ance. Of  course,  a  certain  capacity  for  vicarious 
activity  is  associated  with  the  various  organs 
of  the  body  in  order  to  maintain  their  functions 
against  temporary  failure.  Healthy  tissues  are 
furnished  with  power  to  respond  to  increased  call 
for  exertion.  How  often  are  they  most  sorely 
abused  and  unwisely  taxed  ?  Even  now,  when 
made  aware  of  these  facts,  we  are  slow  to  apply 
to  the  conduct  of  life  the  lessons  thus  taught 


256      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

us,  and  continue  to  be  filled  with  self-commisera- 
tion for  the  results  to  our  bodies  of  overtaxing 
their  capacity  for  accurate  readjustment. 

It  is  not  possible,  much  less  desirable,  that 
the  whole  population  should  plunge  into  amateur 
studies  of  recent  physiological  advance,  nor  even 
that  it  should  dabble,  as  its  units  are  too  much 
disposed  to  do,  in  pseudo-scientific  pathological 
publications.  But  it  is  both  possible  and  desir- 
able for  all  who  assume  the  direction  of  their  own 
lives  or  those  of  children  to  "  read,  mark,  learn, 
and  inwardly  digest "  some  fruits  of  the  labours 
of  others  in  the  garden  of  health. 

Were  there  one  fixed  standard  of  health  to 
which  all  could  attain,  the  practice  of  hygiene 
would  be  attended  by  a  charming  simplicity. 
Unfortunately,  modern  science  forces  us  to  con- 
clude that  each  individual  can  only  reach  his 
own  particular  standard  of  well-being.  The 
grades  of  health  are  consequently  infinite  in 
number,  and  the  task  which  devolves  on  parents 
and  guardians  to  secure  that  the  standard  pos- 
sible to  each  child  under  their  care  be  attained 
is  no  light  one.  So  general  is  the  blindness  to 
these  truths,  that  the  degree  of  health  enjoyed  is 
in  most  cases  far  below  the  possible  standard  ; 
the  results  of  ancestral  vice,  of  parental  ignorance, 
or  of  defective  environment  having  sapped  pre- 
maturely the  springs  of  progressive  potentiality.1 
The  mental  and  physical  balance  is  thus  rendered 

1  "  Principia  Therapeutica,"  chaps,  ii.  iii.     Harrington  Sainsbury. 
(Methuen;) 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  257 

relatively  less  stable  and  the  powers  of  resistance 
to  adverse  conditions  are  diminished. 

Happily,  by  virtue  of  its  inherent  power,  "but 
strictly  in  proportion  to  the  vigour  of  this  power, 
an  organism  is  usually  able  to  strike  a  new  bal- 
ance ;  for  the  capacity  to  regain  its  equilibrium 
is  exquisitely  delicate  in  human  nature,  if  the 
change  be  neither  too  sudden  nor  too  severe. 
Throughout  life  this  process  of  self-adaptation  to 
the  presence  of  morbid  influences  is  constantly 
exercising  its  protective  power.  If,  however,  the 
effort  to  overcome  disadvantageous  conditions  be 
very  great  or  much  prolonged,  the  life  of  the  in- 
dividual is  never  quite  so  vigorous  and  symmetrical 
as  it  might  and  should  have  been.  In  a  luminous 
address,  delivered  at  the  University  of  Leeds  some 
few  months  ago,1  Lord  Justice  Fletcher  Moulton 
instituted  a  comparison  between  the  human 
organism,  which  invariably  tends  to  swing  back 
to  the  normal  whenever  the  balance  of  health  is 
disturbed,  and  a  ship  which  has  safely  weathered 
a  stormy  voyage.  The  ship,  he  writes,  "  is  not 
stable,  if  stability  means  that  she  can  defy  the 
forces  that  bear  on  her  to  move  her  from  her 
normal  upright  position,  for  .  .  .  the  slightest 
roll  of  the  sea  ...  will  make  her  heel  over. 
But  she  is  stable,  because  when  made  to  lean 
over,  there  is  thereby  generated  a  system  of  forces 
tending  to  return  her  to  her  place,  which  grows 

1  "Some  Thoughts  on  Causation  in  Health  and  Disease."  An 
address  delivered  to  the  Faculty  of  Medicine,  October  1909,  by  Lord 
Fletcher  Moulton. 


258      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

greater  the  greater  is  the  displacement,  and  thus 
ultimately  becomes  sufficient  to  overpower  the 
disturbing  forces.  ...  As  the  ship  arrives  safely, 
her  construction  must  be  such  that  disturbances 
tend  to  right  themselves  when  stability  is  seriously 
endangered.  Some  corresponding  righting  force 
also  tends  to  bring  back  an  organism  to  its 
normal  state." 

The  caution  may  not  be  amiss  that  the  ampli- 
tude of  the  swing  of  a  human  pendulum,  as 
well  as  the  accuracy  of  its  final  balance,  depends 
not  only  upon  inherited  nature  and  the  amount 
of  reserve  force  possessed,  but  will  be  stable  or 
feeble,  durable  or  transient,  according  to  the  influ- 
ence of  environment. 

In  what  way,  it  will  be  asked,  can  individual 
capacity  for  health  be  gauged  ?  to  what  degree 
can  the  power  to  progress  or  to  resist  encroach- 
ments be  strengthened  ?  at  what  age  is  intelligent 
supervision  most  important  ? 

No  concise  and  conclusive  answers  can  be 
given  to  these  most  natural  inquiries,  but  much 
light  has  been  recently  thrown  upon  the  .long 
duration  of  immaturity  and  associated  instability 
in  mankind  ;  upon  the  power  of  self-protection 
inherent  in  the  body  ; 1  upon  the  influence  thereon 
of  its  environment ;  upon  the  penetrating  power 
of  heredity ;  and  upon  the  urgent  importance  of 
the  adolescent  period. 

1  "  Studies  on  Immunisation."  Sir  Almroth  Wright,  F.R.S.  (Con- 
stable.) "Immunity  in  Infective  Diseases."  Metchnikoflf.  (Cambridge 
University  Press.)  "  Immunity  and  Specific  Therapy."  W.  d'Este 
Emery.  (Lewis  &  Sons. ) 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  259 

Further,  it  appears  that  the  healthful  body  is 
equipped  to  withstand  the  attack  of  the  bacteria 
of  most  diseases,  though  the  mechanism  of  self- 
defence  is  of  more  kinds  than  one.  Of  the  differ- 
ent pathological  bacteria  identified  up  to  the 
present,  for  instance,  some  appear  to  be  eminently 
sensible  to  one  kind  of  action  of  normal  blood 
fluids,  while  they  are  in  a  much  less  measure  sen- 
sible, or  are,  perhaps,  entirely  insensible  to  others ; 
a  complication  which  enhances  our  respectful  ad- 
miration for  the  marvellous  and  intricate  system 
which  provides  for  our  bodily  welfare.  Obviously, 
human  nature  would  be  practically  immune  from 
disease  if  this  protective  machinery  were  always 
in  good  working  order :  unfortunately  this  is  not 
invariably  the  case — hence  disease.  It  is  the  duty 
of  hygiene  to  insure  constant  physical  equilibrium, 
but  the  intricate  tactics  of  Nature  are  as  yet  so 
imperfectly  understood  that  man  is  not  yet  an 
ally  of  great  worth  in  her  operations. 

Nevertheless,  the  perception  that  the  secret  of 
individual  health  lies  in  fostering  the  resistant  or 
protective  elements,  which  should  be  present  in 
normal  blood,  marks  a  great  step  in  advance  ; 
for  from  it  have  originated  measures  to  curtail 
the  course  of  an  illness  and  to  reduce  the  risk 
of  its  recurrence.  It  is  hardly  Utopian  to  fore- 
cast, as  Sir  Almroth  Wright  has  done,  that  the 
physician  of  the  future  will  take  upon  himself  a 
still  higher  role  than  he  has  hitherto  assumed 
in  this  work  of  the  prevention  of  ill-health, 
for  he  will  attempt,  by  means  of  systematically 


260      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

strengthening  individual  capacity  for  resistance  to 
disease,  to  remove  the  necessity  for  curing  those 
who  have  fallen  victims  to  its  attacks.  The  gain 
in  health,  in  happiness,  in  time  and  in  money 
would  be  incalculable.  For  instance,  had  the 
death-rate  all  over  England  during  1908  stood 
at  13.8  per  thousand,  instead  of  at  favoured 
places  only,  no  less  than  33,831  lives  would  have 
been  saved.  Of  these  deaths,  one-fifth  were  those 
of  infants  under  twelve  months  old,  the  majority 
of  them  wholly  preventable.  What  a  reckless 
waste  of  racial  and  national  capital ;  what  an 
unnecessary  cause  of  bitter  sorrow  and  dis- 
appointment ;  what  a  source  of  unprofitable 
expenditure !  The  calculation  has  been  made 
that  for  each  death  there  are  at  least  six  cases  of 
more  or  less  serious  illness,  involving  confinement 
to  bed  for  a  few  days  or  a  few  weeks  as  the  case 
may  be.  A  simple  multiplication  sum  will  enable 
the  reader  to  estimate  the  amount  of  serious 
illness  represented  by  the  total  arrived  at :  the 
loss  in  time,  health,  happiness  and  efficiency  is 
incalculable. 

The  bright  prospects  for  human  health  in  the 
future,  therefore,  rely  largely  upon  the  use  which 
will  be  made  of  this  protective  machinery,  and  the 
prospective  gain  to  humanity  lies  in  the  hope  that 
when  family  histories  are  kept  systematically  and 
the  inherited  tendencies  of  a  child  are  far  more 
accurately  known,  the  invading  forces  of  disease 
will  never  get  a  footing,  because  precautions  to 
strengthen  the  body's  own  defensive  powers  will 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  261 

be  taken  as  a  matter  of  routine  practice.  The 
physiological  balance  being  thus  preserved  from 
disturbance,  the  great  fund  of  energy  now  utilised 
to  resist  encroachments  will  be  available  for  pro- 
ductive purposes. 

So  great  a  reformation  cannot  of  course  be 
brought  about  till  shame  is  felt  for  the  scandalously 
low  standard  of  health  now  common  among  all 
classes,  nor  until  a  general  determination  is  de- 
veloped to  remove  the  minor  miseries  from  which 
we  all  suffer  more  or  less  impatiently. 


XIII.   THE   IMPORTANCE   OF   MENTAL 
HYGIENE  IN  FAMILY  LIFE 

The  result  of  a  curious  obtuseness  to  the 
economics  of  personal  and  domestic  hygiene  is 
also  responsible  for  another  serious  dereliction  of 
parental  duty,  by  which  health  and  progress  have 
been  grievously,  though  quite  unnecessarily  and 
constantly,  hampered.  I  refer  to  the  general  failure 
to  economise  nervous  energy  or  to  take  any  interest 
in  what  is  rightly  called  mental  hygiene.  Yet  Press 
and  people  alike  deplore  the  evident  increase  of 
mental  abnormalities,  and  anticipate  the  future  with 
undisguised  anxiety.  It  has  been  well  said  that 
though  men  carry  more  of  the  wood,  women  carry 
not  less  of  the  worries  of  life.  They  may  in  some 
cases  escape  the  physical  toil  which  strengthens  ; 
they  do  not  escape  the  mental  toil  which  demoral- 
ises and  kills  spirit  and  energy  if  not  body  and 


262      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

health.  Now,  though  the  brain  tissues  do  not 
create  mental  activities,  nevertheless  we  all  know 
that  they  are  conditioned  in  some  inexplicable  way 
by  that  organ.  Derangement  in  any  part  of  the 
brain  deranges  or  diminishes  its  functions  ;  non- 
development  in  any  part  of  the  brain  can  and  does 
arrest  mind  growth.  Chronic  over- fatigue  and 
exhaustion,  anaemia  however  produced,  the  cir- 
culation through  the  nervous  tissues  of  impure 
blood,  alter  the  character  of  the  mental  pro- 
cesses. The  results  of  starvation  may  so  distort 
them,  that  the  horrors  of  the  French  Revolution 
are  attributed  by  some  authorities  to  this  particular 
cause.  That  the  imperfect  lymph  circulation  asso- 
ciated with  adenoid  vegetations  accounts  for  much 
so-called  stupidity  is  one  of  the  first  fruits  of  the 
medical  inspection  of  school  children  ;  that  a 
severe  shock  may  destroy  intelligence  is  a  fact 
familiar  to  every  expert  in  mental  hygiene.  If  it 
were  generally  known  to  parents  that  every  im- 
pression received  by  this,  the  most  sensitive  of  all 
organs,  is  stored  up  from  early  infancy,  albeit 
subconsciously,  and  can  at  some  future  time  rise 
up  into  the  field  of  consciousness,  influencing  both 
thought  and  action  for  good  or  ill,  a  very  different 
line  of  conduct  would  be  taken  towards  the  persons 
or  the  places  which  make  up  a  young  child's  sur- 
roundings and  most  indelibly  impress  his  brain 
cells. 

It  is  surely  time,  therefore,  that  some  broad 
outline  of  the  process  of  normal  development  of 
the  whole  nervous  system  should  be  possessed  by 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  263 

all  in  charge  of  children.  Every  mother,  for 
example,  should  know  that  the  movements  of 
a  new-born  baby,  such  as  the  facial  contortions 
observed  during  sleep,  or  the  stretching  and  bend- 
ing of  the  limbs  in  very  young  infants,  involuntary 
and  automatic  in  character,  constitute  the  simplest 
form  of  nervous  activity.  They  are  the  necessary 
precursors  of  that  intellectual  ability,  to  the  de- 
velopment of  which  parental  ambitions  aspire, 
and  should  merge  into  more  advanced  forms  of 
nerve  and  muscle  co-ordination,  which,  rightly 
utilised,  are  invaluable  agents  in  infant  education.1 
An  intelligent  nurse  possessed  of  even  this  outline 
could  begin  quite  early  that  training  in  physio- 
logical righteousness  and  in  the  strict  voluntary 
control  of  the  whole  group  of  emotional  ex- 
pressions, of  which,  as  a  little  reflection  will 
quickly  show,  good  manners  largely  consist. 
Presently,  as  the  brain  cells  are  stimulated  into 
function  by  nutrition  and  a  quicker  and  more 
extensive  recognition  of  external  sensations  is 
acquired,  a  child  will  perform  instinctive  move- 
ments, such  as  sitting,  crawling,  standing,  walking, 
jumping  and  throwing.  Though  considerable 
latitude  must  be  allowed  for  their  wide  individual 
variation,  failure  to  display  these  evidences  of 
mental  progress  should  call  for  careful  investiga- 
tion. Later  on,  skill  in  a  hundred  different  forms 
of  muscular  activity  should  be  displayed  ;  but 
many  years  will  elapse  before  full  control  of  the 

1  "  Infant  Education."     Eric  Pritchard,  M.D.  (Kimpton). 


264      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

body  in  all  its  parts  will  be  acquired,  and  more 
years  still  must  roll  by  before  reasoned  control 
of  the  mental  and  moral  actions  is  developed. 
The  last  years  of  this  long  period  of  development 
are,  perhaps,  the  most  critical  of  the  whole  ;  though 
all  depend  for  their  favourable  fruition  upon  an 
infinity  of  loving  care  and  suitable  provision  for 
their  appropriate  activities. 

There  would  be  a  marked  reduction  in  ex- 
hausting disciplinary  difficulties  were  every  parent 
aware  that,  to  the  almost  vegetative  character  of 
the  first  few  post-natal  months  (when  sleep  will 
or  should  absorb  at  least  twenty  hours  out  of  the 
twenty-four),  will  succeed  a  period  of  extraordinary 
activity,  which  lasts  till  about  eight  or  nine  years 
of  age,  when  the  mind  is  essentially  an  exploring 
organ  ;  imitative,  impressionable,  retentive.  Every 
legitimate  opportunity  for  the  liberal  gratification 
of  these  characteristics  should  be  provided,  as  well 
as  suitable  surroundings  for  the  eager,  inquiring 
brain.  Elaborate  toys  are  not  necessary,  nor  is 
premature  book-learning  permissible  ;  but  freedom 
to  investigate,  to  experiment,  to  test,  to  explore, 
is  the  child's  urgent  need,  as  well  as  suitable 
arrangements  for  the  intervening  periods  of  pro- 
found sleep.  Repressed  activity  is  often  respon- 
sible for  breaches  of  discipline  ;  so  is  insufficient 
sleep,  following  on  over-excitement,  accountable 
for  "  temper  "  and  passions. 

The  next  phase  of  growth  is  still  distinguished 
by  this  continued  capacity  for  and  dependence 
upon  muscular  activity,  but  the  mind  becomes 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  265 

more  reflective,  more  productive.  The  power  to 
initiate  should  develop  during  this  stage  of  de- 
velopment, as  well  as  increased  power  to  control 
mental  and  bodily  functions  ;  and,  throughout 
each  of  these  periods,  there  should  be  a  steady, 
unintermittent  formation  of  good  habits.  At  first, 
the  nature  of  these  will  be  chiefly  physical ;  the 
habitual  performance  of  the  bodily  functions  should 
be  safeguarded,  until  their  neglect  is  attended  by 
discomfort  and  their  violation  becomes  almost 
painful.  Then,  by  degrees,  the  moral  and  mental 
nature  develops. 

Thus  is  the  child  prepared  for  the  stress  and 
turmoil  of  the  long  and  anxious  years  of  adoles- 
cence ;  when,  under  the  influence  of  new  emotions, 
of  fresh  temptations,  of  unfamiliar  powers,  the 
character  built  on  the  sands  of  parental  indulgence 
is  undermined,  if  not  swept  clean  away  ;  whereas 
when  built  on  the  firm  rock  of  good  habits  it 
emerges  unshaken  from  the  storm. 

That  childhood  is  an  honourable  estate  must 
be  now  evident ;  pregnant  as  it  is  with  possi- 
bilities, pathetic  in  the  risks  associated  with  its 
plasticity  and  dependence.  Should  it  therefore 
be  necessary  in  the  twentieth  century  to  point 
out  that,  when  the  fund  of  nervous  energy  is 
constantly  exhausted  by  deficient  sleep  and  poor 
food ;  when  a  demand  on  function  in  advance  of 
what  nature  is  prepared  to  comply  with  is  per- 
sistently made,  as  it  has  habitually  been  in  our 
schools  ;  when  exaggerated  and  pernicious  stimuli 
are  allowed  to  fatigue  and  to  paralyse  our  child 


266     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

population ;  when  inadequate  training  in  the  right 
conduct  of  life  is  provided,  and  no  information 
given  on  the  dawning  functions  of  potential  parent- 
hood ;  when  premature  responsibility  is  imposed 
or  precocious  and  unwholesome  independence  is 
permitted  ;  worst  of  all,  when,  through  parental 
disease  or  alcoholism,  the  brain  tissue  is  of  too 
poor  a  quality  to  resist  the  strain  of  modern 
life — it  is  no  matter  for  surprise  that  mental 
instability  and  insanity  are  on  the  increase,  nor 
that  degenerates  hamper  by  their  helplessness  and 
crime  the  productive  capacity  of  the  normal. 

The  importance  of  mental  hygiene  calls  for 
no  more  emphasis  on  my  part  ;  though,  did  space 
permit,  further  illustrations  might  be  given  of  its 
scope.  It  includes  the  methods  in  our  nurseries, 
the  curriculum  of  our  schools,  the  care  of  our 
adolescents,  the  increasing  differentiation  of  our 
industrial  processes,  the  character  of  our  often 
miscalled  recreations.  It  is  concerned  with  the 
warding  off  of  nervous  breakdowns,  and,  with 
Goethe,  it  would  call  the  attention  of  all  women 
to  the  fact  that  the  secret  of  rest  is  found  not  "  in 
quitting  a  busy  career,  but  rather  the  fitting  of 
self  to  one's  sphere."  It  views  with  anxiety  the 
growing  disregard  of  religious  obligations  and 
restraints,  and  emphasises  the  grave  antenatal 
responsibilities  of  parents  for  their  offspring  ; 
they  who  should  be  the  most  ardent  advocates 
of  a  sound  heredity,  as  well  as  the  promoters 
of  a  good  home  environment  for  their  children. 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  267 


XIV.    WOMAN'S   RESPONSIBILITIES   FOR 
HOME   ADMINISTRATION 

Thus,  though  the  human  constitution  is  still 
imperfectly  understood,  though  its  intricacies  and 
the  details  of  environmental  influences  are  still 
mainly  undefined,  the  women  of  every  nation  must 
nevertheless  see  to  it  that  progress  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  home  keeps  pace  with  modern 
demands  for  revised  methods  and  less  conservative 
practice,  in  order  to  give  every  chance  of  normal 
health  to  their  occupants. 

It  is  a  serious  reflection  upon  many  house- 
keepers that  the  hall-mark  of  progressive  civilisa- 
tion, namely  growth  in  power  to  organise,  is 
generally  absent  from  their  domestic  methods. 
The  time  will  come  when  it  will  be  to  them  a 
matter  for  the  deepest  searchings  of  heart  that 
they  are  directly  and  inexcusably  responsible  for 
a  mass  of  the  disharmonies  which  disfigure  the 
fugue  of  family  life.  The  fact  is  too  certain  to  be 
denied.  Homes  have  not  developed  in  proportion 
to  the  opportunities  offered,  and  the  chief  opponents 
to  progress  have  been  their  organisers.  The 
economic  link  they  form  between  the  physical 
economics  of  the  individual  and  the  social 
economics  of  the  nation  has  been  unnoticed. 
Reference  to  the  hygienic  significance  of  due 
economy  of  time,  of  strength  and  of  health,  as 
well  as  of  money,  has  hitherto  been  generally  met 
with  incredulous  smiles  ;  and  though  home  has 


268      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

been  extolled  as  the  place  for  children,  how 
scant  has  been  the  attention  devoted  to  their 
legitimate  requirements,  and  how  few  demands 
for  special  training  have  emanated  from,  or  been 
attempted  by,  those  who  have  undertaken  the  sole 
charge  of  young  lives  during  their  most  important 
and  impressionable  years. 

The  new  movement,  designed  to  foster  the 
science  and  art  of  right  living,  cannot  gain  strength 
and  influence  unless  it  receives  the  whole-hearted 
support  of  the  millions  of  women  whose  lives  and 
energies  are  absorbed  in  the  care  of  man's  physical 
needs.  It  behoves  them  to  recognise  that  intuition 
and  tireless  industry  are  insufficient  qualifications 
for  their  imperial  service,  and  they  must  them- 
selves promote  the  substitution  of  systematic 
training  for  rule-of-thumb  anomalies. 

This  training  must  be  varied  and  comprehen- 
sive. No  other  profession  is  concerned  with  so 
many  interests  nor  associated  with  more  fateful 
responsibilities.  For  those  who  can  afford  the  time, 
it  should  include  a  general  acquaintance  with  the 
biological  basis  of  life,  and  should  further  direct 
attention  to  the  vast  mental  and  moral  endow- 
ments which  give  pre-eminence  to  our  race.  The 
products  of  literature  and  art  and  the  records  of 
natural  and  moral  science  afford  ever  present 
evidence  of  the  extent  of  these  endowments,  and 
of  the  executive  capacity  associated  with  their 
utilisation. 

Chemistry  must  play  a  prominent  part  in  the 
training,  were  it  only  for'  the  insight  it  gives  into  the 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  269 

inviolable  law  of  cause  and  effect !  besides  which 
physiologists  tell  us  that  the  chief  commerce  of  our 
bodies  with  their  environment  is  chemical ;  there- 
fore, this  subject  becomes  an  indispensable  element 
in  any  comprehensive  course  of  domestic  training. 
Without  a  working  acquaintance  with  the  physics 
of  water,  of  heat,  or  of  air,  a  housewife  is  at  the 
mercy  of  her  architect,  if  not  of  her  plumber  and 
her  servants.  In  the  absence  of  an  introduction 
to  bacteriology  she  lives  in  constant  perplexity 
over  the  vagaries  of  her  larder  ;  and  is  at  a  loss 
to  understand  the  sources  of  fermentation  or  the 
methods  of  infection  by  the  majority  of  known 
diseases.  Without  an  insight  into  economics  she 
is  helpless  in  the  hands  of  the  advertiser  or  the 
vendor  of  patent  preparations,  all  of  whose  wares 
are  warranted  to  perform  impossible  feats  with 
an  infinitesimal  expenditure  of  trouble.  At  their 
best  these  preparations  are  expensive,  and  at  their 
worst  they  are  injurious  to  health. 

Some  personal  practice  of  the  domestic  arts  is 
also  advisable  even  for  the  wealthy  ;  it  is  indeed 
essential  to  a  right  adjustment  of  the  daily  duties 
in  a  home,  though  naturally  the  degree  of  skill 
acquired  will  depend  on  the  style  of  living.  A 
study  of  hygiene  in  sufficient  detail  is  of  course 
imperative,  and  while  it  will  remove  difficulties 
by  explaining  common  errors  in  diet,  habits,  and 
dress,  it  will  be  found  materially  to  lighten  labour. 
Finally,  hygiene  will  render  extraordinary  assist- 
ance in  the  right  rearing  of  children  and  in  the 
general  arrangements  of  family  life. 


270      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

The  objections  may  here  be  advanced  that  the 
study  of  these  scientific  subjects  is  uncongenial  to 
those  whose  temperaments  are  artistic  or  literary  ; 
upon  these  people  sanitary  science  has  surely 
meagre  claims,  while  life  is  not  long  enough  for 
all  to  pursue  such  exhaustive  studies.  The  reply  to 
the  first  objection  must  be  in  the  negative.  There 
can  be  no  health  under  modern  conditions  of 
existence  unless  those  who  assume  responsibility 
in  the  affairs  of  men  possess  a  scientific  acquaint- 
ance with  its  right  regulation.  The  subjects  just 
enumerated  are  the  very  pillars  which  support  the 
temple  of  Hygeia.  But,  for  the  encouragement 
of  these  complainants,  be  it  added  that  the  temple 
walls  demand  decoration ;  the  shelves  must  be 
filled  with  wholesome  mental  provender  ;  the  gifts 
of  both  artist  and  author  are  therefore  contributory 
to  harmonious  living,  and  an  unlimited  scope  is 
offered  to  their  utilisation.  The  building  which 
shelters  a  healthy  family,  for  instance,  should  be 
characterised  not  only  by  advances  on  existing 
provisions  for  convenience  but  by  symmetry  in 
its  parts.  The  test  of  beauty  (use,  ease,  and 
economy)  can  certainly  not  be  passed  by  a  large 
proportion  of  modern  houses,  neither  do  they 
provide  the  space  which  gives  to  each  occupant  «  a 
chance  to  utilise  his  own  gifts  or  to  pursue  his 
own  hobby."  Space  needs  in  its  turn  regulation, 
for  the  saving  of  steps  must  be  considered  and 
compactness  is  essential.  Decorations  and  furniture 
should  also  be  suitable  in  form  and  colour  to  their 
purpose,  not  a  mere  heterogeneous  confusion  of 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  271 

inappropriate  colours  and  articles,  out  of  tune  one 
with  the  other. 

The  natural  needs  of  normal  children,  too,  must 
be  more  taken  into  account  in  the  future  than  in 
the  past,  and  the  conveniences  offered  by  scientific 
progress  must  be  far  more  generally  introduced 
into  the  most  modest  homes.  Here  is  a  huge  field 
for  intelligent,  artistic  work ;  for  true  beauty  and 
real  utility  are  near  of  kin. 

It  has  been  said  that  as  in  the  world  of  life 
the  localisation  of  function  made  the  organ  sub- 
sequently to  become  responsible  for  that  function, 
so  may  the  differentiation  of  labour  develop  in- 
dividual talents,  just  as  the  exercise  of  our  vital 
activities  has  led  to  the  differentiation  of  parts  in 
a  house.  Thus,  as  satisfaction  of  hunger  is  a  first 
necessity,  eating  made  the  kitchen,  where  means 
for  the  gratification  of  this  instinct  were  localised. 
By  degrees  the  growth  of  men's  social  and  intel- 
lectual demands  led  to  the  setting  apart  of  a 
chamber  for  conversation  ;  that  is,  the  parlour. 
Storage  of  bread  called  the  pantry  into  existence  ; 
increased  refinement  necessitated  a  scullery  for 
the  washing  of  cups  and  platters.  Centuries, 
however,  elapsed  before  the  enlarging  personality 
of  the  individual  demanded  privacy  for  the  toilet 
and  the  right  to  isolate  himself  periodically  from 
the  bustle  and  publicity  of  group  life.  The 
general  provision  of  separate  bedchambers  for 
each  unit  of  a  household  is  not  even  yet  habitual, 
though  most  desirable  in  the  interests  of  health. 
Reparation  of  the  omission  will  mark  a  further 


272      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

phase  of  social  evolution,  and  will  remove  one 
disintegrating  force  now  continually  at  work  in 
home  life.  Here  again  the  artist  will  most  ad- 
vantageously collaborate  with  landlord  and  with 
health  authorities  to  devise  means  for  the  suitable 
satisfaction  of  this  laudable  demand. 

Further  objections  to  the  adoption  of  any  com- 
prehensive schemes  for  training  housewives  of  all 
ranks  are  found  in  the  apparent  want  of  time 
available  for  the  purpose  and  the  prohibitive  cost 
incurred  if  the  period  of  education  be  prolonged. 
The  best  answers  to  both  objections  are  found  in 
the  movement  now  active  all  over  Europe  and 
North  America  to  furnish  more  and  fuller  oppor- 
tunities for  this  training,  and  to  extend,  not  curtail, 
its  duration.  More  than  this :  this  movement, 
which  generally  originated  in  the  desire  to  improve 
home  life  among  the  poorest,  has  recently  extended 
itself  just  as  generally  to  institutions  for  higher 
education,  upon  whose  pupils  and  students  its 
claims  are  now  recognised.  There  is  no  sugges- 
tion, for  instance,  in  Germany  or  England,  Nor- 
way or  the  United  States,  of  restricting  the  edu- 
cation of  girls  by  this  movement  or  of  prematurely 
enforcing  upon  them  technical  instruction.  The 
growth  of  public  opinion  is  due  rather  to  a  belated 
realisation  that  the  end  of  all  education  is  the 
betterment  of  life,  and  that  suggested  applications 
to  the  practical  concerns  of  daily  life  in  the  course 
of  a  girl's  general  education  make  for  the  sounder 
assimilation  of  theory  by  the  pupil,  and  are  thus 
contrived  a  "double  debt  to  pay." 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  273 

The  progress  of  preventive  medicine  has  also 
introduced  another  incentive  to  the  diffusion  of 
this  training  ;  for  it  affords  convincing  proofs  that 
the  foundation  of  the  national  health  is  laid  in  the 
home.  If,  however,  the  foundation  is  permitted 
to  be  imperfect  the  edifice  must  necessarily  be 
unstable. 

Among  other  influences  prejudicial  to  family 
life,  the  force  of  which  was  for  a  long  time  unsus- 
pected, mention  must  be  made  of  modern  in- 
dustrialism, the  reopening  of  professional  life  to 
women,  with  its  associated  financial  independence 
and  the  increasing  seductions  of  society.  For  a 
century  past  the  tendency  has  been  to  discredit 
housekeeping  as  an  unsystematised  occupation, 
which  has  emphasised  the  common  and  sometimes 
humiliating  financial  dependence  of  its  represen- 
tatives. The  first  nation  to  perceive  the  importance 
of  stemming  this  dangerous  tide  was  the  United 
States,  where  conclusive  demonstrations  are  now 
offered  of  the  fact  that  intelligent  housekeeping 
calls  for  a  high  degree  of  capacity,  and  that  its 
problems  demand  the  resources  of  a  university 
for  their  solution.  By  the  recognition  of  house- 
craft as  a  profession,  American  colleges  accom- 
plished even  more  than  at  first  they  anticipated. 
A  satisfactory  proportion  of  their  students  return 
to  home  life  convinced  of  its  scope  and  import- 
ance, and  satisfied  to  perform  the  duties  which 
there  present  themselves,  instead  of  seeking  out- 
side occupations  and  divorcing  themselves  from 
family  interests.  The  King's  College  Course  for 

S 


274     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

graduate  students  in  Home  Science  and  Household 
Economics  bids  fair  to  exercise  an  influence  of  as 
satisfactory,  though  naturally  of  a  slightly  variant, 
character. 

XV.  THE   FUNCTIONS   OF  THE   HOME 

If  the  functions  of  the  home  are  briefly  enu- 
merated under  three  heads,  no  hint  of  exaggera- 
tion will  attach  to  the  assertion  that  by  its 
atmosphere  children  are  modified  in  soul  and 
body,  and  that  upon  its  outlook  depends  the 
ideals  and  health  of  all  its  occupants. 

The  first  function  of  the  home  may  be  fitly 
defined  as  Protective.  If  its  evolution  be  traced  it 
will  be  found  that  home  life  originated  in  a  craving 
for  warmth,  safety,  and  shelter  ;  in  the  desire  for 
a  place  where  the  weary  could  rest  and  where 
security  from  ill  was  assured.  Physical  comfort, 
sympathy  and  sanctuary  are,  or  should  be,  nrimary 
characteristics  of  every  home. 

The  second  function  of  the  home  is  Edu- 
cational. It  is  largely  responsible  for  the  systematic 
formation  of  good  habits,  which  should  here  be 
stimulated  by  example  and  precept,  and  every 
advantage  taken  of  the  imitative  instincts  so 
powerful  in  early  life.  Within  its  precincts 
care  can  be  exercised  to  afford  opportunity  for 
the  development  of  individuality ;  it  is  also,  par 
excellence,  the  place  for  early  training  in  the 
judicious  expenditure  of  energy  and  in  the 
acquirement  of  self  -  control.  Such  training 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  275 

improves  brain  power,  relieves  nervous  tension, 
and  obviates  the  tendency  to  mental  and  moral 
confusion  and  disorderliness  which  is  associated 
with  its  absence.  In  a  good  home  the  child's 
sanitary  education  should  be  fairly  complete, 
at  least  in  its  main  principles,  before  the  in- 
fection of  bad  habits  from  without  can  interfere 
with  automatic  practice  or  weaken  faith  in  home 
standards  and  conduct.  Regular  washing  of  the 
teeth,  for  instance,  should  be  early  inculcated, 
and  rigid  conscientiousness  in  matters  of  personal 
cleanliness  : — external,  by  bathing,  rubbing,  and 
brushing ;  internal,  by  strict  daily  attention 
to  the  bodily  functions.  Slow  and  thorough 
mastication  of  food  should  be  cultivated,  as  well 
as  good  habits  of  posture,  of  enunciation,  and 
of  regular  exercise.  Last,  but  not  least,  habits 
of  prompt  and  cheerful  obedience,  of  truth- 
fulness, and  in  due  course  of  moral  purity, 
must  be  wrought  into  the  very  fibre  of  a  child's 
being.  The  discipline  of  home  ought  to  be 
above  all  things  consistent  ;  gentle,  though  firm 
and  well  considered.  The  virtues  of  obedience, 
of  self-restraint,  and  of  respect  for  others  should 
become  instinctive  almost  from  infancy  ;  for  they 
sow  the  seeds  of  physical  morality  in  later  life. 

The  third  function  of  the  home  is  Social. 
Before  the  present  era  of  "  only "  children,  the 
exaggerated  individualism  was  uncommon,  of 
which  many  of  them  are  now  unfortunately  the 
victims.  When  large  families  were  the  fashion, 
the  give-and-take  in  nursery  and  schoolroom 


276      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

gave  early  training  in  the  duty  of  participation 
in  the  interests,  the  pleasures,  or  the  sorrows 
of  others  ;  it  rubbed  off  the  rough  angles  of 
selfishness  and  gave  invaluable  lessons  in  con- 
sideration for  those  whose  circumstances  varied 
from  immediate  individual  experience.  The  wider 
social  sphere,  for  which  much  of  the  rough  and 
tumble  of  family  life  was  an  excellent  preparation, 
was  not  familiar  then  to  young  children  as  it 
is  now,  when  the  modern  child's  premature 
introduction  to  its  attractions  is  not  only  a 
constant  source  of  physical  detriment  and  of 
mental  exhaustion,  but  tends  to  disguise  its  real 
character  and  to  stimulate  precociously  the 
capacity  to  respond  to  its  demands.  Occasional 
glimpses  of  this  larger  life  are  a  desirable  part 
of  home  education  ;  but  constant  familiarity  with 
its  excitements  is  to  be  sternly  deprecated  in  the 
causes  of  health  and  of  mental  stability. 

Where  and  when,  then,  are  "  only "  children 
to  receive  this  necessary  social  training,  occu- 
pants as  they  are  of  solitary  nurseries  ;  or  where 
are  these  qualities  to  be  developed  in  the 
millions  of  children  reared  under  circumstances 
of  such  acute  overcrowding  and  poverty  that 
the  amenities  of  life  are  obscured  by  its  fierce 
and  exhausting  conditions  ?  Observation  shows 
that  the  function  of  accomplishing  this  training  is 
steadily  devolving  upon  the  school.  Unfortunately, 
though  the  school  does  offer  necessary  opportu- 
nities for  social  intercourse,  this  intercourse  is 
relatively  of  an  advanced  type,  which  presupposes 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  277 

some  previous  training  in  the  more  elementary 
principles  of  community  life,  most  fitly  acquired 
at  home.  This  tendency  to  force  the  school  to 
supplant  instead  of  to  supplement  home  training 
must  be  resisted,  as  it  involves  loss  to  parents 
as  well  as  to  the  children  themselves. 

The  stress  here  laid  upon  the  social  function 
of  the  home  may  seem  to  some  exaggerated,  and 
its  association  with  the  subject  of  this  paper  may 
appear  far-fetched  ;  but  to  the  writer  its  pressing 
importance  calls  for  this  emphasis,  for  its  con- 
nection with  habits  of  sanitary  practice  within  and 
without  the  home  is  of  the  closest.  The  social 
spirit  is  the  very  essence  of  sympathy  ;  it  exercises 
the  imagination,  it  widens  the  horizon,  it  quickens 
the  sense  of  duty  and  of  self-respect.  If  gradua- 
tion through  the  school  of  domestic,  social  train- 
ing be  omitted  in  childhood,  the  realisation  of 
personal  responsibility  is  too  often  indefinitely 
postponed.  Consideration  for  others,  care  for 
their  welfare  and  personal  sacrifice  for  their  pro- 
tection, must  ever  bulk  largely  in  importance 
throughout  life,  and  must  always  be  associated 
with  self-respect  and  self-control.  When  this 
sense  of  personal  responsibility  is  habitual,  conduct 
which  makes  for  limitations  of  health  in  self, 
family,  or  neighbours  will  appear  unjustifiable ; 
and  neglect  of  either  domestic  or  civic  duties  will 
become  as  unpardonable  as  it  is  unpatriotic. 

But  antecedent  to  the  attainment  of  this  ideal, 
fundamental  even  to  its  entertainment,  is  the  ad- 
justment or  readjustment  of  home  influences  or 


278      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

methods,  as  the  case  may  be,  to  a  higher  standard. 
A  better  understanding  of  the  constitution  of 
those  for  whose  welfare  the  home  is  established 
must  also  be  insisted  upon  as  an  integral  part 
of  general  education. 

It  may  be  wise  to  point  out  that  no  proposal 
to  sweep  away  in  wholesale  fashion  all  the  do- 
mestic traditions  and  family  methods  of  this  or 
any  other  phase  of  civilisation  is  even  suggested. 
Apart  from  the  impossibility  of  such  a  holocaust, 
treasures  of  great  worth  have  been  handed  on 
to  us  by  our  forebears,  of  which  the  majority  only 
need  some  slight  readjustment  to  enrich  many 
generations  yet  to  come. 

To  take  a  somewhat  extreme  example.  The 
mention  of  such  homely,  old-fashioned,  domestic 
remedies  as  black-currant  tea  for  a  bad  cough,  or 
soap  and  sugar  plasters  for  a  boil — genuine  relics 
from  our  grandmothers — now  usually  excite  a 
smile  of  derision  ;  nevertheless  they  have  been 
instanced  by  one  of  our  most  able  living  patho- 
logists1  for  their  admirable  adaptation  to  their 
purpose,  and  have  been  shown  to  rest  upon  a 
hitherto  unsuspected  basis  of  physiological  thera- 
peutics. 

Another  illustration  may  be  drawn  from  the 
nursery  tradition  that  bad  temper  is  often  effectu- 
ally cured  by  a  dose  of  rhubarb.2  Carefully  con- 

1  "  Studies  on  Immunisation,"  pp.  279,  462.     Sir  Almroth  Wright, 
F.R.S.,  M.D.     (Constable.) 

2  "  Addresses  and  Proceedings  of  the  National  Education  Associa- 
tion,  St.  Louis,  Mo.,"  1904,  pp.  952-962 — "The  Chicago  Hospital 
School  for  Nervous  and  Delicate  Children,"  hy  Mary  R.  Campbell. 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  279 

ducted  observations  upon  children  confirm  the 
conventional  connection  of  peevishness  with  dis- 
ordered digestion.  It  has  been  found  that 
gastric  indigestion  produces  oversensitiveness, 
fretfulness,  and  irritability,  while  chronic  consti- 
pation results  in  erratic  conduct,  stupidity,  languor, 
headache,  and  moodiness.  These  effects  may  be 
so  far-reaching  that,  for  no  other  reason  than 
chronic  constipation,  children  may  lose  a  large 
proportion  of  the  advantages  provided  in  school 
life  ;  they  may  even  run  the  risk  of  being  classed  as 
"  backward,"  from  the  interference  with  mental 
progress  of  the  food  poisons  reabsorbed  into  their 
circulation. 

Modern  methods  of  child  training  lay  great 
emphasis  upon  the  prevention  of  these  or  kindred 
conditions  by  early  formation  of  good  habits  ;  or, 
when  carelessness  necessitates  curative  treatment, 
our  old  nurse's  panacea  of  drugs  is  the  last  resort  ; 
the  first  consists  in  attempts  to  re-establish 
normal  functions  by  the  more  natural  means  of 
suited  food  and  special  exercise. 

It  is  time,  too,  that  the  so-called  "  hardening 
fallacies,"  responsible  for  the  maiming  of  countless 
lives,  were  finally  exposed  and  exploded.  The  idea, 
for  example,  dies  hard  that  beneficial  endurance 
is  cultivated  by  exposure  to  cold  ;  therefore,  bare 
necks,  arms  and  legs  are  lauded  as  means  of  de- 
veloping a  Spartan  spirit  in  young  children.  Now 
no  profound  study  of  hygiene  is  required  to  demon- 
strate the  close  interdependence  of  warmth  wijh 
growth  and  nutrition,  or  to  show  that  the  chilly 


28o      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

and  underclothed,  sedentary  child  is  both  stunted 
and    starved ;   whereas   the   suitably  clothed    and 
freely  active  child  is  able  to  carry  on  unhampered 
the   necessary  processes  of  growth   and  develop- 
ment.1    So   important   is   warmth   to   the   infant, 
that   eighty  per   cent,    of   the   total   energy  derived 
from  its  food  is  utilised  for   the  maintenance  of 
the  body  temperature  essential  to  growth  and  for 
the  activities  of  the  organic  and  muscular  systems. 
Children,   in   accordance   with   the  law  of    the 
relation  between  mass  and  surface  in  a  cube,  have, 
relatively  to   their   mass,   about   thrice   the    body 
surface  possessed  by  an  adult.     The  greatest  loss 
of    heat    occurs  by  radiation  from    the  skin  and 
by    the    evaporation    of    sweat,    therefore    undue 
loss    from    this     extensive    area    should    be    pre- 
vented   by   its    suitable    covering  ;    otherwise   the 
child  is  placed  at  a  far  more  serious  disadvantage 
than    would    be    suffered    by    an    adult    similarly 
situated ;    for    in    his     case    growth    as    well    as 
equilibrium   must    be    maintained.     Few    parents 
realise   the   further   fact   that   the  power   of    heat 
regulation  is  very  imperfect  at  birth  ;   indeed  its 
slow  development  accounts  for  the  instability  of 
a  child's  temperature  for  many  years  after.     The 
fallacy  therefore  of  seeking  to  strengthen  a  young 
life  by  inadequate  clothing,  by  enforced  and  pro- 
longed inactivity,  or  by  abstinence  from  the  source 
of  all  energy — food — must  be  persistently  exposed. 
Quite  recently,  also,  Dr.  Eurich  has  advanced  evi- 

1  "  Children  in  Health  and  Disease,"  p.  41.     David  Forsyth,  M.D. 
(Murray.) 


SANITARY    SCIENCE 


281 


dence  to  show  that  the  quality  of  sleep  is  adversely 
affected  where  the  sleeper  is  insufficiently  pro- 
tected from  cold,  thus  emphasising  the  injury  to 
health  associated  with  going  to  bed  with  cold  feet. 
All  parents  are  ambitious  that  their  off- 
spring shall  be  distinguished  by  the  energy,  the 
stability,  the  endurance  and  the  power  which 
characterise  the  cream  of  humanity.  The  lives 
of  young  people  are  carefully  planned  with  this 
object  in  view.  The  waking  hours  of  most  girls 
and  boys  are  distributed  in  ordered  sequence 
between  what  is  intended  to  be  concentrated 
work  and  vigorous  more  or  less  exciting  play. 
But  the  fact  has  been  very  commonly  ignored 
that  these  young  people  are  built  up  of  young 
cells,  which  cells  are  passing  through  almost 
every  conceivable  phase  of  instability  in  the  course 
of  development  ;  consequently  recurring  periods 
of  leisure  and  rest  are  as  important  to  nutrition 
and  nervous  stability,  more  especially  in  the  case 
of  girls,  as  are  the  most  elaborate  arrangements 
for  exercise. .  Thus  it  comes  about  that  many 
youths  and  maidens  suffer  from  chronic  though 
unrecognised  fatigue,  while  others  are  unable  to 
employ  pleasurably  even  a  short  space  of  "  time 
to  themselves,"  finding  no  interest  in  occupations 
from  which  excitement  is  absent.  The  habitual 
limitation  of  the  hours  of  sleep  among  the 
rising  generation  is  equally  serious.  The  loss 
which  would  be  unbearable,1  says  Dr.  Acland, 


1  "  On  the  Hours  of  Sleep  at  Public  Schools."  A  paper  read  before 
the  Medical  Officer  of  Schools  Association,  May  u,  1905,  by  T.  D. 
Acland,  M.A. 


282      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

even  among  our  most  favoured  children,  were 
it  not  for  the  indulgence  permitted  them  during 
their  long  holidays.  Is  it  not  a  parental  duty 
to  insist  upon  the  necessary  provision  for  rest 
being  made  in  every  school,  and  ought  not 
inviolable  rules  upon  the  subject  be  laid  down 
in  their  home  circles  ?  Sleep,  be  it  remembered, 
is  the  property  of  animals  possessed  of  brains 
and  endowed  with  consciousness ;  it  affords 
mechanical  rest,  and  is  accompanied  by  a  respite 
from  the  chemical  changes  which  are  particularly 
rapid  during  childhood  and  adolescence.  The 
intense  activity  of  the  child's  waking  hours 
must  be  counterbalanced  by  ample  periods  of 
entire  rest.  Habits  of  prolonged  profound  sleep 
are  said  to  be  the  best  investment  against  mental 
instability  and  insanity ;  yet  parents  permit  a 
constant  loss  of  from  two  to  four  hours'  sleep 
each  night  throughout  the  long  period  of  im- 
maturity.1 Our  newspapers  and  lunatic  asylums 
bear  evidence  to  the  price  paid  for  this  now 
inexcusable  carelessness. 

Many  more  examples  might  be  given  of  similar 
fallacies  which  apply  to  later  periods  of  life.  How 
soon  will  a  loving  daughter  allow  herself  to  learn 
that  the  consumption  of  large  quantities  of  highly 
nutritious  food  will  not  make  for  the  prolongation 
of  an  aged  parent's  life  ?  The  fact  that  abstemi- 
ousness and  rigid  conformity  to  the  "  simple  life  " 

1  "Some  Results  of  an  Investigation  into  Hours  of  Sleep  of  School 
Children." — International  Magazine  of  School  Hygiene,  vol.  v.  part  i. 
Alice  Ravenhill. 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  283 

are  not  coincidents  of  longevity,  but  contributory 
to  it,  should  be  now  common  knowledge.  When 
will  the  day  come  that  the  fact  will  be  ac- 
cepted that  alcohol  does  not  warm  and  protect 
the  consumer,  but  actually  lowers  the  tempera- 
ture, and  by  this  means,  in  cold  weather,  renders 
him  a  more  ready  prey  to  the  effects  of  exposure. 
When  will  the  value  of  good  work  cease  to  be 
measured  by  the  exhaustion  it  brings  about  or 
the  breakdown  to  which  it  conduces  ?  Is  it  not, 
time  that  the  housewife  should  be  abashed  rather 
than  self-commiserating  when  a  bad  cold  runs 
through  her  household,  for  observation  of  certain 
elementary  principles  of  disinfection  would  go  far 
to  avert  such  a  catastrophe  ?  When  will  the 
fallacy  be  destroyed  which  gauges  the  strength  of 
a  disinfectant  by  the  pungency  of  its  odour  ? 
The  knowledge  now  available  on  these  and  many 
other  points  only  awaits  assimilation  by  the  house- 
keepers of  the  empire,  to  serve  as  a  powerful 
lever  by  which  to  raise  the  standard  of  health  in 
its  every  part. 

XVI.  HOME  LIFE  AN  IMPORTANT  SPHERE 
FOR  SANITARY  SCIENCE 

The  urgent  call  for  a  more  intimate  acquaint- 
ance with  these  tenets  of  domestic  sanitary  science 
calls  for  no  further  examples,  though  at  the  risk 
of  wearying  the  reader  one  or  two  more  may 
be  selected  to  illustrate  their  claims  upon  every 
member  of  a  household. 


284      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

It  behoves  the  householder,  in  the  first  place,  to 
choose  his  dwelling  with  care  ;  and,  in  the  second, 
to  maintain  the  health  of  its  inmates  by  his  own 
conduct  and  by  compliance  with  the  requirements 
of  public  health  enactments.  He  must  be  gener- 
ally acquainted,  therefore,  with  the  essentials  of  a 
healthy  home  and  with  the  obligations  he  must 
fulfil  or  the  demands  he  may  legitimately  make 
upon  local  authorities  and  neighbours  ;  other- 
wise he  cannot  insure  that  his  own  care  is  not 
frustrated  by  derelictions  of  duty  on  the  part 
of  others.  The  selection  and  purchase  of  the 
family's  food  will  probably  devolve  upon  his 
wife,  but  it  rests  with  him  to  insist  that  this 
food  is  produced,  transported  or  distributed,  with 
due  observance  of  cleanliness,  and  that  reliable 
protection  from  sophistication  or  adulteration  is 
maintained.  If  conformity  to  necessary  standards 
as  well  as  the  good  quality  of  their  products  is 
to  be  safeguarded,  the  premises  of  dairy,  bake- 
house, slaughter-house,  laundry,  market,  and  local 
purveyor  of  goods  should  come  under  his  intelli- 
gent inspection.  The  surroundings  as  well  as  the 
conveniences  of  a  house  also  call  for  careful 
consideration,  especially  when  some  of  its  inmates 
are  of  tender  years  ;  and  the  reminder  that  to 
the  provision  for  light  and  air  in  its  rooms 
must  be  assigned  a  greater  prominence  than  the 
mere  prettiness  of  external  elevation  is  still  neces- 
sary. It  is  the  householder  who  for  some  time 
to  come  must  from  his  wider  knowledge  of 
economics  personally  safeguard  his  women-folk 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  285 

from  unnecessary  exertion  and  chronic  fatigue, 
by  the  provision  of  efficient  fittings  and  equip- 
ment, by  a  judicious  expenditure  upon  labour- 
saving  devices,  and  by  insistence  upon  adequate 
rest,  recreation,  and  remuneration.  To  the  gradu- 
ate in  the  school  of  personal  experience  the  duty 
of  public  service  will  next  arise,  in  order  that  the 
advantages  enjoyed  in  his  own  home  may  be 
extended  to  those  for  whom  cheap  housing  must 
be  provided.  Civic  claims  must  in  the  near  future 
appear  much  more  prominently  than  hitherto  in 
the  balance-sheet  of  duty. 

The  necessity  for  a  study  of  child  life  and 
its  requirements  ought  to  be  realised  by  both 
parents  before  the  bitter  results  of  inexperience 
have  permanently  shadowed  their  home.  This 
should  be  pursued  by  the  man  as  well  as 
the  woman  before  marriage  is  consummated,  if 
their  offspring  is  to  be  "  well  born "  and  well 
nurtured. 

Maternal  care  is  of  course  the  more  conspicu- 
ous during  the  first  ten  years  of  a  child's  life  ;  but 
during  the  next  fifteen,  more  especially  in  the  case 
of  his  sons,  it  is  the  father's  example,  sympathy, 
and  companionship  which  will  steer  them  healthily 
through  the  stormy  seas  of  adolescence,  which 
will  safeguard  them  from  pernicious  habits  and  will 
extend  a  helping  hand  in  moments  of  temptation. 

To  enumerate  the  opportunities  for  hygienic 
practice  by  the  prime  organiser  of  domestic 
methods — the  mother — is  almost  superfluous  at 
this  point.  It  is  the  foundation  upon  which 


286      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

depends  the  welfare  of  each  member  of  a  household  ; 
for  it  is  the  housekeeper  who  plans  the  food  and 
is  responsible  for  its  character  and  suitability  to 
age,  season,  health,  and  occupation.  It  is  she 
who  superintends,  if  she  does  not  carry  out,  the 
details  of  cleanliness,  so  arduous  and  discouraging 
in  our  great  cities.  It  is  she  who  selects  the  cloth- 
ing of  her  family  ;  who  directs  the  order  of  their 
lives  : — their  work  and  play,  their  rest  and  exercise, 
their  sleep  and  their  habits.  It  is  her  place 
to  shake  faith  in  popular  patent  preparations, 
by  good  reasons  and  demonstrations  of  their  ex- 
aggerated claims  on  purse  and  person.1  It  is  her 
example  which  sets  the  tone  in  recreation,  pur- 
suit of  hobby,  or  choice  of  literature.  It  is  her 
infinite,  understanding  patience  which  cements 
breaches  in  family  love  ;  it  is  her  skilful  treatment 
which  heals  wounds,  spiritual  as  well  as  physical. 
It  is  her  privilege  to  devise  better  methods  for 
daily  doings  and  to  appreciate  the  principles  of 
sound  economics.  It  falls  on  her  to  discourage 
futile  expenditure  of  health,  time,  or  temper  ;  to  be 
alive  to  possibilities  of  progress  ;  to  show  by  her 
deeds  how  profound  is  her  faith  in  the  dignity  of 
a  home-maker  and  her  recognition  of  the  extra- 
ordinary demands  made  by  her  profession  on  in- 
telligence, moral  capacity,  and  mental  attainments. 
It  has  been  slowly  dawning  upon  some  minds 
for  half  a  century  at  least  that  kitchen  methods 
in  many  of  their  details  fail  to  meet  the  require- 

1  "Secret  Remedies:  What  they  Cost  and  What  they  Contain." 
British  Medical  Association.  "  Popular  Drugs :  Their  Use  and 
Abuse."  Sidney  Hellier,  M.D.  (Werner  Laurie.) 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  287 

ments  of  sanitary  science.  The  ordinary  cook 
does  not  even  suspect  what  cleanliness  means 
from  the  laboratory  point  of  view  ;  neither,  alas  ! 
does  her  mistress,  in  the  case  of  90  per  cent, 
of  middle-class  housekeepers.  Both  alike  cheer- 
fully ignore  the  relative  value  as  cleansing  agents 
of  boiling  as  compared  with  "  scalding  "  water  ; 
and  refer  to  the  broad  shoulders  of  the  weather 
or,  quite  frankly,  to  bad  luck,  the  waste  of  food 
directly  attributable  to  ignorant  and  uncleanly 
methods  in  market,  purveyor's  cart,  or  scullery. 
Yet  no  valid  excuse  can  now  be  offered  for  ignor- 
ance of  the  real  causes  of  the  souring  of  milk,  the 
tainting  of  meat,  or  the  decay  of  vegetables ; 
neither  is  it  permissible  to  entrust  to  the  untrained 
the  care  of  larder  and  refrigerator,  except  under 
intelligent  supervision.  It  is  of  course  a  sign  of 
progress  that  the  modern  housewife  prides  herself 
upon  the  delivery  of  the  daily  milk  supply  in 
bottles.  But  a  quite  superficial  acquaintance  with 
bacteriology  would  show  the  imperfect  character 
of  such  a  protection.  The  milk  may  still  be 
poured  by  the  cook  from  the  unwashed  mouth 
of  a  bottle,  grasped,  even  if  but  momentarily,  by 
the  hand  of  a  milkman,  which  shortly  before  was 
caressing  his  horse  or  serving  him  as  a  substitute 
for  a  pocket-handkerchief !  When  the  numerous 
uses  of  paper  in  the  kitchen  are  considered, 
the  advantage  of  a  scientific  acquaintance  with 
its  constituents  and  absorbent  properties  should 
hardly  need  emphasis.  But  the  laissez-faire  atti- 
tude, common  in  many  households,  permits 


288     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

newspaper  or  brown-paper  bags  of  questionable 
antecedents  to  be  used  indiscriminately  for  the 
lining  of  cake  tins  or  the  draining  of  fried  foods. 
Should  this  be  tolerated  any  longer  ? 

A  sounder  knowledge  of  the  risks  to  health 
associated  with  unwholesome  food  would  surely 
check  the  growing  disposition  to  purchase  pro- 
visions over  the  telephone,  instead  of  by  personal 
inspection  and  careful  selection  ;  for  the  risks 
associated  with  stale  vegetables  or  with  "  woolly  " 
fish  would  be  recognised,  in  the  light  of  this 
fuller  knowledge,  as  too  serious  to  be  en- 
countered by  any  one  responsible  for  the  health 
of  a  household.  Again,  cold  storage  is  so  justly 
credited  with  the  numerous  and  unquestionable 
benefits  which  it  confers  upon  the  housewife,  that 
she  is  apt  to  forget  the  coincident  dangers  ;  only 
through  tardily  acquired  experience  does  she  be- 
come aware  that  foods  which  are  thawed  after  freez- 
ing possess  a  singular  faculty  for  rapid  deteriora- 
tion, and  undergo  subtle  and  detrimental  changes 
when  so  preserved  over  a  long  period.  No  excuse 
for  continued  ignorance  as  to  the  changes  re- 
sponsible for  such  deterioration  is  now  permissible  ; 
neither  can  it  be  condoned  in  connection  with 
the  "  flora  "  of  the  refrigerator,  now  known  to  be 
accountable  for  the  unpleasant  and  all-pervading 
flavours  of  the  food  stored  in  such  a  receptacle, 
and  itself  the  product  of  defective  cleanliness. 
The  idiosyncrasies  of  different  groceries,  as  regards 
temperature  and  receptacles,  have  hitherto  received 
no  attention,  though  the  art  of  preserving  fruits 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  289 

fresh  as  well  as  dried,  is  better  appreciated  than 
was  formerly  the  case. 

It  would  be  easy  to  show,  too,  did  space 
permit,  what  ample  scope  there  is  for  the  appli- 
cation of  sanitary  science  in  the  storeroom,  as 
well  as  the  true  hygienic  inwardness  of  frequent 
coats  of  lime  wash  in  larder  and  scullery,  not  to 
mention  the  worth  of  impervious  coverings  to 
their  wall  surfaces  and  shelves.  This  suggests 
the  inquiry  :  How  many  women  to-day  are  versed 
in  the  external  tests,  simple  as  some  of  them  are, 
which  can  be  applied  to  tins  containing  food- 
stuffs, with  the  object  of  gauging  the  quality  of 
their  contents  ;  or  who  among  our  ordinary  house- 
wives understands  the  reasons  for  the  employ- 
ment of  reliable,  domestic  methods  of  preserving 
the  contents  of  the  larder,  such  as  sterilisation  by 
the  use  of  heat,  or  why  fat,  sugar,  salt,  or  vinegar 
are  preferable  to  the  seductive  yet  questionable 
chemicals,  so  attractive  to  the  producer  and  pur- 
veyor of  provisions  ? 

A  better  understanding  of  the  relation  of  sanitary 
science  to  daily  life  would  also  facilitate  some  of 
the  painful  steps  which  must  inevitably  be  taken,  in 
order  to  bridge  the  gulf  set  between  the  feudal 
methods  of  the  past  and  the  modern  problems 
of  domestic  service.  That  the  isolation  from  her 
kind  of  a  "  general  "  servant  predisposes  to  anaemia 
is  stated  as  a  fact  on  good  authority,  but  it  is 
certainly  not  generally  known.  That  absence  of 
opportunity  for  recreation  or  social  intercourse 
has  led  and  may  lead  again  to  deception,  if  not 

T 


290      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

to  worse,  is  recognised  unwillingly,  if  at  all.  That 
human  nature  is  physiologically  similar,  however 
diverse  its  external  appearance  and  standards,  is 
very  hard  to  realise  or  to  act  upon ;  so  the  fact 
that  suitable  provision  for  bathing  and  wholesome 
sleep  by  dependents  is  not  always  made,  is  apt 
to  be  ignored  on  economic  grounds ;  and  the  re- 
sultant complications  are  assigned  to  any  but  their 
real  cause. 

The  solution  of  another  of  the  acute  problems 
of  the  day  depends  upon  the  women  also  of  this 
country.  I  refer  to  the  character  of  the  influence, 
an  influence  of  the  most  intimate,  to  which  young 
children  are  subjected  during  infancy.  In  addition 
to  vulgarities  of  conduct  or  enunciation,  actual 
moral  harm  may  be  suffered  from  want  of  care  in 
the  choice  of  a  child's  attendant.  Bad  habits,  im- 
possible to  eradicate,  are  to  be  traced  to  this  source 
only.  Their  hygienic  import  calls  for  no  further 
stress.  Their  prevention  rests  entirely  with  the 
child's  parents. 

Another  illustration  of  the  need  for  a  better 
acquaintance  with  hygiene  is  found  in  the  general 
custom  of  entrusting  the  preparation  and  care 
of  the  daily  diet  to  empirically  prepared,  ill- 
informed,  young  women.  Ascertained  facts  in 
connection  with,  for  instance,  "typhoid  carriers"1 
should  have  surely  created  almost  a  panic  in  the 
households  of  England  ;  but  it  is  rare  to  learn  that 
even  one  mistress  has  inquired  into  the  personal 

1  "  Human  Carriers  of  Typhoid  and  other  Zymotic  Diseases." — The 
Sanitary  Record,  Sept.  8,  1910,  pp.  215-216, 


SANITARY    SCIENCE  291 

habits  of  her  cook,  or  that  she  has  concerned 
herself  personally  in  the  cultivation  of  most  care- 
ful attention  to  necessary  hand-washing  by  her 
household.  A  mere  tyro  in  sanitary  science  would 
take  warning  and  be  on  her  guard  against  this 
and  other  disgusting  and  preventable  sources  of 
domestic  infection. 

Finally,  the  protective  function  of  the  home  must 
not  be  allowed  to  obscure  the  educational  and 
social.  It  is  the  right  of  all  children  to  be  trained  in 
habits  of  social,  as  well  as  of  family,  sanitary  service. 
Very  early  the  love  of  ceaseless  doing,  by  which 
these  little  people  are  distinguished,  can  be  taken 
hold  of  as  an  agent  in  this  department  of  educa- 
tion. Habits  of  neatness  and  order,  of  kindness 
and  ready  help,  of  self-sacrifice  and  self-control, 
become  lifelong  in  their  persistence  and  develop 
a  physical  as  well  as  moral  conscience  which 
makes  for  public  health.  But,  without  appro- 
priate stimulus  this  interest  in  others,  this  sense 
of  civic  obligation,  remains  in  abeyance.  There- 
fore girls  should  be  encouraged  in  the  educational 
practice  of  the  domestic  arts  about  the  age  of 
thirteen  or  fourteen ;  though  instruction  in  the 
care  of  children  may  be  postponed  for  a  year 
or  two.  Always  it  should  precede  marriage  and 
be  adapted  to  the  prospective  social  sphere  of  the 
pupils.  It  would  be  advantageous  to  foster  the 
interest  of  boys  in  social  sanitation  by  the  intro- 
duction of  some  equivalent  training  into  their 
curriculum. 

Enough  has  been  said  to  show  that  knowledge 


292      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

of  household  administration  must  soon  become  an 
indispensable  qualification  for  any  woman  who 
undertakes  the  charge  of  human  lives,  whether  it 
be  as  wife  or  guardian,  as  official  or  philanthropist, 
as  physician  or  educator,  as  head  of  an  institu- 
tion (such  as  orphanage,  asylum,  hospital  or 
prison),  or  as  almoner  of  public  funds.  To  be 
practical  and  influential  this  comprehensive  sub- 
ject must  be  systematically  acquired  and  securely 
based  ;  it  must  be  accorded  the  support  of  men, 
and  it  must  receive  the  recognition  due  to  its 
imperial  importance.  Thus  sustained  and  forti- 
fied, acquaintance  with  all  that  is  comprehended 
in  the  domestic  administration  for  good  of  human 
lives  will  lead  our  women  to  redeem  their  many 
shortcomings  in  the  past,  and  will  stimulate 
them  to  assume  with  courageous  confidence  their 
weighty  responsibilities  in  the  present  and  future. 
Whether  prepared  or  not  for  their  discharge, 
these  responsibilities  cannot  be  evaded.  Upon 
their  capable  fulfilment  depend  human  health  and 
happiness.  "  Health  and  good  estate  of  body  are 
above  all  gold,"  said  Ecclesiasticus,  "  and  a  strong 
body  above  infinite  wealth."  Seen  in  its  true  light 
this  great,  beautiful,  responsible  work  becomes 
the  highest  form  of  consecrated  service  to  the 
Source  of  all  Life  and  to  the  Giver  of  all  those 
good  things  which  humanity  is  intended  richly  to 
enjoy. 


MODERN    WOMAN    AND    THE 
DOMESTIC   ARTS 

BY  MRS.  R.  W.  EDDISON 

MEMBER,  EDUCATION  COMMITTEE,  WEST  RIDING  COUNTY 
COUNCIL,  ETC. 


MODERN   WOMAN   AND   THE 
DOMESTIC  ARTS 

I.  NEEDLEWORK   AND   DRESSMAKING 

INTRODUCTION 

MODERN  woman  finds  herself  in  the  twentieth 
century  heiress  to  an  accumulation  of  domestic 
experience  handed  down  from  her  primitive 
sisters,  much  of  which  originated  in  necessity, 
and  survives  from  custom. 

It  is  said  that  "  of  the  billion  "and  a  half  human 
beings  on  the  earth,  about  700,000,000  are 
females,  and  what  share  their  mothers  and  grand- 
mothers, back  to  the  remotest  generation,  have 
had  in  originating  and  developing  culture  is  a 
question  which  concerns  the  whole  race,"  though 
allusion  only  can  be  made  to  it  in  this  paper. 

If,  from  the  study  of  anthropology,  we  find 
that  man  was  the  hunter,  the  killer  of  food,  it  was 
woman  who  cared  for  it,  prepared  it  for  use,  tilled 
the  ground,  cleaned,  dried,  cut,  and  sewed  skins 
for  clothing  and  shelter.  It  is  believed  by  many 
authorities  that  it  was  woman  who  invented  an<^ 
made  many  of  the  implements  with  which  she 
worked,  and  who  spun,  wove,  and  dyed  fibres  of  all 

295 


296     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

kinds  into  strong,  useful,  and  sometimes  beautiful 
fabrics  of  varied  and  pleasing  tints  and  colours, 
from  dyes  of  her  own  making,  which  she  obtained 
from  animal  and  vegetable  sources.  The  introduc- 
tion of  much  plain  and  ornamental  stitchery,  the 
forerunner  of  the  needlework  of  the  present  day, 
followed  quickly  upon  the  coming  of  textiles. 

Until  the  invention  of  machinery  and  the  insti- 
tution of  the  factory  system,  the  practice  of  a 
large  number  of  arts  was  in  the  hands  of  women 
as  part  of  their  lives  and  homes.  Now,  however, 
women  are  no  longer  leather-dressers,  potters,  or 
weavers  in  the  home — these  arts  have  become 
trades  for  men,  carried  on  in  factories  ;  and  even 
the  more  intimate  arts  of  cooking,  cleaning,  and 
needlework  are  threatened  from  the  outside. 

The  cheapness  and  readiness  with  which  the 
products  of  the  factory  can  be  obtained,  whether 
for  the  purposes  of  food  or  of  clothing,  has  to  a 
large  extent  removed  the  desire  to  exercise  these 
arts  herself,  especially  from  the  woman  whose 
time  can  be  otherwise  employed  to  her  financial 
advantage  in  industrial  pursuits.  It  would  almost 
appear  that  she  has  failed  to  perceive  the  intel- 
lectual and  aesthetic  enjoyment  to  be  derived  from 
them,  and  has  been  content  to  permit  the  skill  and 
knowledge  she  originally  acquired  and  exercised  to 
rust  from  want  of  practice  as  each  generation 
succeeds  its  predecessor.  On  the  other  hand,  as 
the  accumulated  profits  from  the  factory  have 
made  it  possible  for  well-off  women  to  depute 
their  own  share  of  cooking,  cleaning,  sewing,  and 


DOMESTIC    ARTS  297 

the  care  of  children  by  payments  to  their  less 
financially  fortunate  sisters,  usually  untrained 
women  of  narrow  education,  public  opinion  has 
shown  a  tendency  to  regard  these  arts  as  menial, 
and  to  some  extent  derogatory  in  practice  to  the 
educated  and  refined.  Amongst  this  class  of 
women,  consequently,  knowledge  of  these  arts 
has  steadily  dwindled,  until  the  home-made  jams, 
jellies,  cordials  and  pickles  of  our  grandmothers, 
the  linen  they  spun,  wove,  and  fashioned,  are  no 
longer  the  glory  of  our  storerooms  and  linen- 
presses  ;  while  the  home  has  come  to  be  less  and 
less  regarded  as  the  right  and  proper  place  for 
instruction  in  the  domestic  arts. 

Deep  down,  however,  in  the  modern  woman's 
nature  lies  the  old  instinct  for  order,  for  caring  for 
things  animate  and  inanimate.  This  instinct  has 
found  expression  since  the  early  seventies  among 
more  fortunately  situated  women  in  an  endeavour 
to  arrest  the  decay  of  what  I  have  called  the  more 
intimate  household  arts,  to  promote  their  revival 
and  to  raise  their  status  in  education — an  endeavour 
due,  shall  we  say,  to  "  something  in  the  air,"  a  kind 
of  "  Zeit  Geist " — beginning  more  or  less  contem- 
poraneously on  the  Continent  of  Europe,  in  Great 
Britain,  and  in  the  United  States  and  Canada ;  an 
endeavour  not  to  benefit  themselves  alone,  but  to 
help  their  poorer  sisters. 

It  was  soon  agreed  that  the  cultivation  of  the 
household  arts  belonged  to  education,  and  that 
they  might  and  should  be  taught  in  schools  ;  but 
the  questions — What  was  their  link  with  general 


298      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

education,  by  what  methods  they  could  be  most 
appropriately  taught,  and  in  the  curriculum  of 
what  schools  they  should  find  a  place — have  been 
the  basis  of  prolonged  experimental  effort.  It  is 
now  the  opinion  of  a  large  section  of  persons  of 
authority  in  education,  that  these  arts  are  neither 
"  sacred  mysteries  which  can  only  be  understood 
by  patient  life  study,"  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  can 
any  woman,  whatever  her  intellectual  ability,  master 
them  without  training.  It  has  been  well  said,  in 
effect,  that  the  former  attitude  leads  to  a  contempt 
for  the  plain  everyday  things  of  life,  while  the 
latter  is  responsible  for  the  cultivation  of  a  girl's 
head  at  the  expense  of  her  hands. 

The  arts  of  cooking  and  cleaning  took  the  lead 
in  order  of  experiment.  The  results,  as  recorded, 
have  proved  their  position  to  belong  directly  to 
the  region  of  applied  science,  and  to  be  worthy  of 
a  place  in  a  specially  arranged  course  of  house- 
hold science  and  economics  for  women,  of 
university  standard.  We  may  confidently  expect 
that  this  result  only  anticipates  a  corresponding 
triumph,  awaiting  in  its  turn  similar  experimental 
work,  which  has  been  carried  on  for  some  years 
in  respect  of  the  teaching  also  of  the  art  of  needle- 
work. These  experimental  efforts  include  the 
intelligent  employment  of  the  pencil,  the  scissors, 
and  the  needle  in  the  production  of  garments, 
draperies,  napery,  and  so  forth.  The  lines  along 
which  at  the  present  moment  this  development  is 
proceeding  have  regard  indeed  not  only  to  the 
practical  worth  of  needlecraft,  but  to  its  intimate 


DOMESTIC    ARTS  299 

association  with   general  education  as  well  as  to 
decorative  and  applied  art. 

When  we  inquire  what  have  been  the  results  of 
past  methods  of  teaching  needlework  in  our 
elementary  schools,  and  find  that  they  are  in  no 
way  commensurate  with  the  time,  labour,  and 
money  spent  upon  them,  it  surely  is  wise  to  call 
a  halt  and  examine  into  our  aims  and  methods. 
The  circular  of  "  Suggestions  for  the  Teaching  of 
Needlework  "  issued  by  the  Board  of  Education  in 
August  1909  is  not  the  first  authoritative  pro- 
nouncement of  the  Board  on  this  matter,  but 
is  the  outcome  of  "  the  well-considered  criticism  " 
invited  upon  their  "  Suggestions "  on  the  same 
subject  issued  in  1905,  which  teachers  and 
others  were  asked  to  consider  as  a  challenge  to 
independent  thought  on  the  subjects  of  which  it 
treated. 

THE  "PRINCIPLES"  OF  NEEDLEWORK 

This  challenge  has  resulted  in  the  statement  of 
certain  important  "  principles  "  in  the  new  circular 
and  of  the  proper  attitude  of  the  teacher  towards 
them,  viz. : — 

I.  The  duplex  aspect  of  needlework. 

1.  As  a  separate  branch  of  instruction,  the  aim  of 

which  is  proficiency. 

2.  As  a  means  to  an  end,  other  than  (but  not  ex- 

cluding) a  certain  proficiency,  i.e.  to  develop 
the  intelligence  and  even  to  form  the  character 
of  the  child. 


300      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

II.  The  subject  must  be  made  interesting  if  it  is  to  be 
educational.  The  making  of  specimens  is  not  inter- 
esting, and  should  be  discouraged,  excepting  for  the 
practice  of  new  stitches  before  they  can  be  used  on 
a  complete  garment  or  article,  however  small,  for  the 
child  herself  or  for  others. 

III.  Correlation  of  needlework  with  drawing  and  arithmetic 

in  the  higher  classes. 

1.  To  train  the  eye  in  form  and  proportion. 

2.  To  illustrate  principles  of  arithmetic,  by  measur- 

ing and  deciding  upon  quantities  and  by  cal- 
culating cost,  introducing  incidentally  ideas 
of  economy  and  thrift. 

IV.  Needlework  lessons   are  ordinarily  uninteresting  and 

wearisome  to  body  and  mind.  This  need  not  and 
should  not  be ;  if  the  subject  is  taught  with  the  why 
and  wherefore  of  things,  it  should  rather  stimulate 
intelligence  and  capacity. 

V.  Opportunity  is  afforded  by  the  lesson  for  practically 
and  tactfully  inculcating  the  charm  of  neatness, 
cleanliness,  and  tidiness  in  person  and  in  clothing, 
encouraging  the  child  in  self-respect  and  to  regard 
as  a  matter  of  shame  that  any  girl  should  reach 
woman's  estate  without  a  practical  knowledge  of  the 
use  she  can  make  of  the  needle. 

Certain  suggestions  follow  as  a  basis  for  a  more 
detailed  scheme,  viz. : — 

1.  Classification  of  scholars  as  to  age  and  capacity. 

2.  Size  of  illustrations  and  use  of  blackboard. 

3.  Instruction  of  weakly  children,  and  care  of  eyesight. 

4.  Exercises  in  knitting  and  various  forms  of  constructive 

handwork  for  very  young  children,  in  preparation 
for  definite  instruction  in  needlework  at  a  later  age. 

5.  Condemnation  of  habit  of  counting  threads. 

6.  Order  of  teaching  "processes"  in   needlework,  from 

simple  to  complex. 


DOMESTIC    ARTS  301 

7.  Suitability  of  materials,  needles,  and  threads  to  each 

other,  and  of  the  style  of  sewing  to  the  garments 
which  the  children  should  wear. 

8.  Direction  of  attention  to  the  fact  that  hands  and  eyes 

which  have  been  sensibly  trained  to  execute  "  plain 
work"  will  acquire  "fancy  work"  quite  readily  later 
on  if  leisure  can  be  found. 

9.  New  methods   and    stitches   to  be   learned  on   waste 

material. 

10.  Importance  of  practice  in  mending  at  school  and  at 

home. 

11.  Importance  of  cutting-out  and  pattern-making. 

12.  Garments  made  to  be  worn,  not  kept  at  school. 

13.  Elaborate  making-up   of  paper   garments   to  be  dis- 

couraged. 

14.  Rough  sketches  to  train  the  eye  to  recognise  the  value 

to  each  other  of  different  parts  of  a  pattern. 

15.  Importance  of  recognition  of  difference  between  a  well- 

cut  and  an  ill-cut  garment. 

1 6.  Calculation  of  kind,  quantity,  and  cost  of  material  to 

be  worked  out  in  an  arithmetic  lesson. 

17.  Note-books  and  records  to  be  kept. 

1 8.  Fixing  to  be  done  by  actual  maker  of  garment — not  a 

joint  production. 

19.  Use  of  sewing  machine  permitted  for  long  seams  and 

hems. 

20.  No  time  to  be  wasted  while  waiting  for  teacher's  help. 

Independent  work  to  be  encouraged.  Knitting  and 
other  suitable  work  to  be  at  hand. 

This  excellent  and  sensible  paper  of  suggestions 
means  an  offer  of  freedom  on  the  part  of  the 
Board  ;  it  remains,  therefore,  but  to  accept  and 
adopt  its  conditions.  A  practical  difficulty,  how- 
ever, at  once  arises  from  the  fact  that,  after  a  long 
period  of  bondage  to  many  "  Regulations,"  it  is 
difficult  for  the  teaching  profession  in  general  to 
realise  that  independent  judgment  is  now  expected 


302      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

of  them,  indeed  is  required,  though  this  is  a  phase 
temporary  and  evanescent,  which  will  quickly 
adjust  itself. 

For  lack  of  time  and  space  we  must  here  pass 
over  the  important  question  of  the  relation  of  the 
domestic  arts  to  the  general  school  curriculum, 
as  well  as  the  proportion  of  time  to  be  allotted  as 
between  needlework  and  the  other  domestic  arts, 
and  dwell  for  a  moment  on  the  relative  qualifica- 
tions of  our  teachers  in  different  sections  of  the 
whole  subject  taken  at  its  widest,  for  these  quali- 
fications reflect  the  existing  demands  of  the  public. 
Taking  England,  for  example — how  do  we  stand 
with  other  countries  in  this  respect  ?  Speaking 
generally,  and  as  one  who,  though  not  profession- 
ally a  teacher,  has  for  many  years  had  a  hand  in 
the  training  of  teachers,  and  who  has  given  much 
time  and  thought  to  the  comparative  study,  both 
theoretical  and  practical,  of  needlework  and  dress- 
making, it  seems  to  me  that,  as  to  sewing,  we  are 
as  good,  if  not  in  some  ways  better  than  our 
neighbours,  though  we  have  been  apt  to  regard 
the  perfection  of  our  stitches  as  an  end  in  itself, 
which  decidedly 'vitiates  our  conclusion.  We  also 
appear  to  have  much  to  learn,  or  at  least  to 
practise,  in  respect  of  suitability  of  materials, 
needles,  and  threads  to  each  other,  and  of  the  style 
of  work  to  the  purpose  required.  As  to  "cut" 
and  "the  hang  of  the  thing,"  and  the  root  difference 
between  an  "  ill-cut "  and  a  tl  well-cut  "  garment,  I 
fear  we  make  a  bad  third  with  France  and  Austria  ; 
but  with  our  newly  acquired  freedom  we  can  and 


DOMESTIC    ARTS  303 

we   must   change    all    that :    the   public  begin   to 
demand  it. 

In  the  first  place,  we  must  clear  our  minds 
of  the  indefinite  cloud  of  detail  in  which  they 
have  been  so  long  submerged  ;  or,  to  change  the 
metaphor,  whereas  hitherto  we  have  too  often  not 
been  able  to  see  the  wood  for  the  trees,  we  must 
now  learn  clearly  to  distinguish  between  "  prin- 
ciples "  and  "  methods,"  which  in  practice  are  over 
frequently  confused :  then,  quite  easily  and  natu- 
rally, the  teacher  will  derive  resulting  details  from 
the  few  definite  principles  which  are  the  "  basis 
alike  of  the  simplest  garment  and  the  most  artistic 
handicraft,"  and  "  the  principles  once  understood, 
in  one  instance,  the  pupils  will  be  able  to  make 
wider  applications  for  themselves." 

It  is  important  here  to  emphasise  that  some 
elementary  knowledge  of  hygiene,  physiology,  and 
anatomy  is  necessary  for  the  intelligent  apprecia- 
tion of  the  requirements  of  the  body  as  to  clothing, 
and  of  its  alterations  in  shape  when  muscles  are 
tense  or  relaxed.  By  a  reliable  system  of  drafting 
from  direct  measurement,  such  as  one  of  those  in 
use  in  the  Ecoles  Professionelles  of  Paris,  a  shaped 
bodice  can  be  produced  fitting  the  arms  and  figure 
easily  and  gracefully,  and  from  this  pattern  can 
be  deduced  further  patterns  of  other  garments, 
whether  tight,  loose,  or  semi-fitting,  which  hang 
from  the  shoulder  or  the  waist. 

When  the  theory  of  drafting  has  been  learned, 
and  the  shapes  and  proportions  of  a  pattern  and 
its  derivatives  are  understood,  « moulage "  or 


304     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

modelling  on  the  figure  in  muslin,  should  be 
attempted  ;  though,  be  it  remembered,  "  moulage  " 
should  not  be  regarded  as  a  substitute  for  drafting, 
but  as  its  necessary  accompaniment,  for  it  affords 
opportunity  for  eye  training,  and  for  learning  how 
and  where  at  certain  points  the  material  should 
be  stretched  or  held  easily  on  the  figure.  The 
pupil  is  thus  prepared  to  handle  the  pattern  in- 
telligently when  cut  out  in  material. 

I  have  seen  it  objected  that  only  awkward  and 
wooden  lines  can  be  obtained  from  drafting  on 
paper  because  of  its  rigidity,  and  because  the 
pattern  is  built  up  upon  a  framework  of  straight 
lines  at  right  angles  to  each  other.  The  objector 
cannot  have  understood  that  the  rectangular  con- 
struction lines  have  no  connection  with  the  out- 
lines of  the  pattern,  except  as  affording  points 
d'appui,  which  are  found  by  direct  measurement. 
These  construction  lines  stand  for  the  warp  and 
woof,  or  "  thread  "  of  the  material  to  be  used  for 
the  garment.  Stress  must  be  also  laid  on  the  fact 
that  the  grace  or  angularity  of  the  pattern  outline 
actually  depend  upon  the  eye  training  and  per- 
ception of  curves  derived  from  drawing  lessons, 
which  must,  for  this  as  well  as  other  reasons,  form 
a  part  of  the  scheme  of  instruction. 

CONCLUSION 

Limits  of  time  and  space  have  only  allowed  me 
to  touch  the  fringe  of  a  fascinating  and  useful 
subject ;  but  the  frequent  conferences  of  teachers 
now  being  held  in  different  centres,  and  the  new 


DOMESTIC    ARTS  305 

suggestions  of  the  Board  of  Education  are  stimu- 
lating so  much  interest  and  discussion  that  I  feel 
that  the  educational  teaching  of  needlework  in 
its  broad  sense  in  England  has  a  cheerful  future. 
Tbere  is  already  much  excellent  teaching  and  work 
done  in  some  of  the  trade  schools  in  London  as 
well  as  in  a  few  of  its  elementary  schools,  and 
others  elsewhere,  which  leaves  little  to  be  desired 
from  many  points  of  view. 

Apart  from  the  modern  educational  treatment 
of  needlecraft  and  dressmaking,  though  arising 
directly  from  it,  are  the  unquestioned  advantages 
which  may  result  to  any  woman  of  whatever  rank  or 
social  position  who  is  willing  to  devote,  in  the  first 
instance,  a  little  time  and  intelligence  to  mastering 
a  (ew  elementary  principles  introductory  to  their 
practical  application,  either  by  herself  or  by  any 
one  in  her  employment,  to  the  cutting  and  making 
of  her  own  garments  from  direct  measurement, 
modified  by  measurements  of  individual  carriage 
or  conformation. 

When  these  modifications  are  clearly  understood, 
the  proving  of  the  flat  pattern  on  the  table  after 
drafting  should  produce  a  well-shaped  and  correct 
lining,  without  the  misery  of  standing  for  hours 
in  the  ordinary  way  to  be  "  fitted  on."  If  finer 
touches  are  needed,  they  are  of  the  nature  of 
"  moulage,"  or  modelling  ;  the  different  parts  of 
the  pattern  retain  their  balance  and  relative  pro- 
portions, and  the  length  of  the  operation  is  much 
shortened. 

The  majority  of  women,  especially  when  past 

u 


306      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

youth,  are  not  so  happy  as  to  possesss  the  theo- 
retically perfectly  balanced  and  well-proportioned 
figure  which  has  been  so  successfully  adopted  by 
the  best  business  houses  as  the  basis  for  cutting 
high-class  ready-made  garments.  Happy  indeed 
is  the  woman  who  can  "  walk  straight  into  them  " 
without  the  offered  "  slight  alteration "  which  so 
often  spoils  the  cut  and  brings  bitter  disappoint- 
ment to  the  wearer.  There  are  few  women  who 
have  not  groaned  under  the  waste  of  time  and 
fatigue  entailed  by  being  "  fitted  on "  under  the 
hands  of  the  "  little  dressmaker/'  or  for  that  matter 
under  hands  of  much  greater  pretension,  with  no 
idea  of  principles  in  cutting,  who  pinch  and  drag 
and  smooth  down  by  rule-of-thumb,  producing 
garments  without  balance  or  ease,  whose  faults 
may  be  disguised  by  trimming  or  drapery,  but 
whose  discomfort  is  always  present  to  the  wearer. 

Women  have  in  fact  so  long  submitted  to  this 
tyranny  of  rule-of-thumb  in  dress-cutting,  as  in- 
separate  from  it,  that,  as  is  their  nature,  they 
continue  to  endure  what  they  think  cannot  be 
cured.  Nevertheless,  the  discomforts  and  un- 
certainties of  this  rule-of-thumb  misery  may  be 
entirely  eliminated,  and  it  is  for  the  modern 
woman  to  demand  and  insist  upon  its  elimination. 

Let  me  especially  recommend  to  ladies  posses- 
sing the  invaluable  qualities  in  this  connection  of 
taste  and  style  in  dress,  who  may  be  thinking  of 
taking  up  dressmaking  as  a  profession,  that  as  an 
important  preliminary  step  they  should  master 
the  principles  of  a  good  method  of  cutting.  Let 


DOMESTIC    ARTS  307 

them  make  sure  that  the  method  can  lay  claim  to 
this  description  ;  that  it  is  reliable  and  not  alto- 
gether empirical.  Thus  they  will  render  themselves 
to  some  extent  independent  of  the  possible  vagaries 
and  misfits  of  their  cutters  and  workers.  The 
excellent  courses  of  instruction  now  carried  on  in 
the  trade  schools  already  referred  to  should  ere 
long  create  a  supply  of  well-trained  young  women 
who  will  do  their  best  work  under  an  instructed 
head,  and  will  be  able  to  carry  out  intelligently 
her  ideas  and  directions.  Under  such  conditions 
there  should  be  no  room  for  failure  in  a  business 
of  this  kind.  As  a  result,  the  arts  of  needlecraft 
and  of  dressmaking  will  be  raised  to  the  plane  of 
scientific  certainty  and  success  which  is  their  due, 
instead  of  remaining  at  the  often  low  level  of  the 
unorganised,  empirical  and  inartistic  occupations 
— a  frequent  source  of  financial  disaster  to  their 
exponents  and  of  perennial  vexation  to  the  help- 
less victims  of  their  products. 


MODERN    WOMAN    AND   THE 
DOMESTIC    ARTS— (Contd.) 

BY  MAUD  R.  TAYLOR 
II.  HOUSECRAFT 

THE  position  of  modern  woman  towards  matters 
domestic  is  somewhat  undefined,  and  at  best  can 
hardly  be  considered  satisfactory.  Her  attitude 
towards  housekeeping  is  not  one  of  enthusiasm. 
The  Lancashire  mill-girl  is  proud  to  have  a  house 
of  her  own,  but  prefers  her  life  at  the  mill  to  one 
spent  in  ordering  that  house  ;  the  elementary 
school  teacher  considers  housekeeping  of  so  little 
economic  interest  that  she  is  injured  if  she  may 
not  devote  her  married  life  to  a  profession  de- 
manding the  best  of  her  energy  ;  the  university 
graduate  pretends  to  a  mind  superior  to  physical 
comfort  and  welfare  unless  it  can  be  produced 
by  a  creature  less  specialised  than  herself. 

In  the  field  of  paid  occupations  for  women, 
educated  and  uneducated,  domestic  work  stands 
low;  not  necessarily  low  in  scale  of  payment,  but 
uninviting  as  a  sphere  of  work  and  lacking  the 
dignity  of  skilled  employment.  That  good  house- 
wives may  be  found  in  every  grade  of  society  is 


DOMESTIC    ARTS  309 

evident,  but  the  general  trend  of  our  social  evolu- 
tion demands  that  some  organised  effort  shall  be 
made  to  simplify  actual  work  and  to  raise  the 
appreciation  of  that  work. 

In  history  and  philosophy,  the  moral  advantages 
of  a  good  home  have  been  acknowledged  and  ex- 
tolled. The  physical  advantages  are  only  now 
being  fully  emphasised,  and  there  is  an  ever- 
increasing  demand  that  women  shall  diligently 
apply  their  best  efforts,  first  to  the  problems  of  the 
individual  household,  and  then  beyond  it  to  those 
forms  of  housekeeping  that  fall  to  municipal  and 
national  control.  We  need  a  different  estimate,  a 
better  realisation,  of  the  enormous  responsibility 
that  lies  in  feeding,  housing,  and  general  hygienic 
conditions,  and  such  a  realisation  must  work  from 
the  top  downwards  in  our  social  and  intellectual 
strata. 

In  the  care  of  the  sick  we  have  seen  a  complete 
revolution.  Even  so  recently  as  the  days  of  our 
grandparents  "  Sarah  Gamp "  was  the  general 
refuge — now  her  name  is  a  byword.  The  work 
of  nursing  and  the  care  of  an  invalid's  room,  be 
it  home  or  hospital,  has  been  raised  from  mere 
manual  labour.  Intellect  has  established  formulae 
and  dogma  on  which  workers  can  be  trained,  and 
the  work  itself  has  been  proved  not  alone  a  suitable 
means  by  which  a  woman  can  earn  her  living,  but 
also  a  profession  demanding  a  dignified  respect  and 
admiration.  The  researches  of  medical  laboratories 
— the  accumulated  experience  of  the  great  physi- 
cians and  surgeons  of  the  world — are  constantly 


310     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

placing  valuable  knowledge  in  the  hands  of  nurses 
and  those  who  train  them.  Elaboration  and  fuss 
have  gone  in  favour  of  a  simplicity  of  service  based 
on  scientific  facts  ;  the  influence  of  the  trained 
worker  has  to  some  extent  permeated  the  untrained 
service  of  home  nursing.  Great  may  still  be  our 
ignorance  and  great  the  need  for  a  more  adequate 
service,  especially  in  the  homes  of  the  poor,  but 
taken  as  a  whole  the  care  of  the  sick  has  been 
raised  to  what  we  may,  without  ambiguity,  call  a 
scientific  art.  Nursing  may  be  popular  from  a 
love  of  such  work  and  from  its  financial  return, 
but  the  real  strength  of  the  nursing  world  lies  in 
its  orgainsed  provision  of  skilled  women  sent  out 
to  their  work  with  a  knowledge  of  its  detail  and 
a  training  in  routine,  paid  for  by  service  during 
years  of  apprenticeship. 

The  changes  that  have  been  effected  in  regard 
to  the  care  of  the  sick  may  not  form  a  perfect 
analogy  of  what  can  be  done  in  other  forms  of 
domestic  work,  but  they  at  least  constitute  a  lesson 
in  cause  and  effect,  with  many  suggestions  for  the 
would-be  reformer.  Improvement  in  nursing  owes 
its  first  impetus  to  a  realisation  of  the  part  a  nurse 
must  of  necessity  play  in  curing  or  alleviating 
suffering,  and  any  real  improvements  in  our 
general  domestic  work  and  conditions  will  only 
be  seriously  considered  when  they  are  properly 
appreciated  in  their  relation  to  the  health  and 
efficiency  of  the  nation.  To  bring  this  home  to 
individuals  and  classes  must  be  the  work  of 
education.  Let  us  magnify  the  office  of  the 


DOMESTIC    ARTS  311 

housewife  unduly  rather  than  leave  it  unrecognised. 
We  must  demand  something  more  than  mere 
manipulative  skill  from  the  manual  worker — a 
knowledge  and  interest  from  those  who  direct  her 
work  ;  a  place  in  laboratories  and  schools  for  the 
many  problems  worthy  of  elucidation.  To  make 
lessons  in  housecraft  a  part  of  the  curriculum  of 
elementary  and  secondary  schools  has  its  own 
good  ;  to  make  lessons  in  sick-nursing  also  a  part 
might  be  good ;  but  to  leave  both  there  would 
be  only  to  patch,  not  mend,  a  rent  in  our  social 
conditions.  The  matter  must  find  its  way  into 
universities  and  research  schools  for  its  physical 
and  economic  investigation — as  in  other  kinds  of 
work  we  need  an  aristocracy  of  brains  to  guide 
the  democracy  of  hands  to  found  an  apprentice- 
ship system  that  shall  provide  efficient  workers 
to  bring  the  mighty  forces  of  chemical,  physical, 
and  biological  science  to  bear  directly  on  such 
matters  as  selection  of  foods,  methods  of  cook- 
ing, better  apparatus  for  cleaning  purposes,  and 
an  evolution  of  house-planning  and  furnishing  that 
shall  reduce  the  present  elaboration  of  service  and 
cleaning.  It  is  not  possible  that  every  woman  who 
cooks  a  potato  shall  be  intimately  acquainted  with 
the  structure  of  starch-cells  or  the  effect  of  heat  on 
those  cells,  nor  is  it  likely  that  we  shall  aim  at  a 
system  that  makes  the  cooking  of  our  food  as 
exact  as  a  laboratory  experiment,  but  that  ther- 
mometer, microscope,  and  test-tube  have  their  own 
part  to  play  is  evident.  The  use  of  a  disinfectant 
by  a  nurse  is  a  scientific  operation,  the  scope  of 


312      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

which  has  only  been  made  possible  by  many  and 
careful  investigations  in  which  the  specialised 
effort  of  the  few  has  resulted  in  a  definite  formula 
and  a  handy  preparation  only  to  be  used  with  intelli- 
gent appreciation  of  its  purpose.  She  understands 
its  use  and  abuse,  how  to  adapt  it  to  circumstances, 
and  probably  how  to  find  a  substitute  for  it  if 
occasion  requires. 

It  is  much  on  these  lines  that  many  of  the 
problems  of  kitchen  and  household  interest  must 
be  attacked. 

We  need  a  simple  and  reliable  classification  of 
foods  that  shall  be  useful  to  the  practical  cook. 
A  quantitative  analysis  of  proteid  or  carbo-hydrate 
qualities  of  wheat,  lentils,  or  milk  may  form  ex- 
cellent exercise  for  laboratory  classes,  but  even 
there  it  is  too  often  taught  without  any  relation 
to  the  assimilative  properties  of  the  average 
digestion  and  their  consequent  effect  on  food 
values.  For  ordinary  use  we  want  all  this 
brought  to  a  general  outlook  of  the  value,  and 
comparative  value,  of  such  ordinary  food  as 
bread,  oatmeal,  eggs,  and  beef;  not  only  as  to 
suitable  proportions  in  our  diet  and  to  methods 
of  cooking,  but  also  as  a  help  in  providing  suit- 
able substitutes  for  a  particular  commodity  in 
time  of  scarcity.  Beyond  the  inevitable  victims 
of  the  Irish  potato  famine,  many  suffered  quite 
unnecessarily  for  want  of  ability  to  replace  the 
familiar  potato  by  a  possible  substitute ;  and  to- 
day we  are  little  more  intelligent  in  our  catering. 
Quantity  and  quality  of  the  potato  crop  must 


DOMESTIC    ARTS  313 

each  year  to  some  extent  make  itself  felt  on  small 
purses,  and  while  not  dependent  on  this  one 
article  of  diet  we  might  often  help  a  meagre  table 
by  a  good  substitute  such  as  rice,  hominy,  dump- 
lings, and  an  increased  supply  of  fresh  vegetables. 
Substitutes  for  butcher's  meat  too  often  suggest 
the  purely  vegetarian  dish  that  to  most  people 
is  but  a  pis  alter.  To  replace  part  or  even  most 
of  the  meat  in  a  dish  with  a  food  of  approximate 
dietetic  value  would  generally  be  more  acceptable. 
A  dish  of  haricot  beans  cooked  with  a  little 
minced  beef  is,  for  example,  a  very  different  dish 
from  the  vegetarian  treatment  of  the  same  article. 
Pea-soup  made  with  the  addition  of  a  ham  or 
beef  bone  will  generally  win  approval  over  its  less 
"  tasty  "  rival.  The  value  of  eggs  and  the  many 
ways  of  using  cheese — the  possibilities  of  oatmeal 
beyond  mere  porridge — are  all  matters  worth 
understanding ;  so  also  is  the  problem  of  our 
milk  supply. 

The  fact  that  legislation  is  active  in  securing 
the  hygienic  conditions  of  the  wholesale  milk 
supply  cannot  excuse  individual  indifference  to 
either  its  actual  value  or  suitable  treatment.  The 
inferiority  of  skim  or  separated  milk  to  "  whole 
milk"  has  been  so  emphasised  that  in  many 
places  a  useful  article  is  lying  as  a  drug  in  the 
market.  That  skim  milk  is  as  useful  as  many 
«  stocks  "  and  much  better  than  water  for  making 
porridge,  maigre  soups,  sauces,  for  mixing  bread 
and  scones,  has  yet  to  be  appreciated,  and  will 
only  be  so  when  the  true  economic  use  of  food 


314     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

is  removed  from  its  present  haphazard  position 
among  the  instinctive  arts  ! 

The  constructive  consistency  of  meat,  fish,  and 
vegetables  must  be  clearly  set  out  if  we  are  to 
understand  the  effect  upon  them  of  heat.  The 
primary  methods  of  cooking  and  the  standard 
proportions  of  ingredients  may  already  be  used 
with  an  intelligence  that  at  least  puts  aside  the 
recipe  book;  but  the  research  that  can  produce 
a  satisfactory  system  of  catering  and  cooking  has 
yet  to  invade  the  higher  education  of  men  and 
women.  A  suggestion  of  the  scientific  treatment 
of  domestic  matters  too  often  presumes  an  elabora- 
tion of  work  rather  than  a  reduction  of  it,  and  yet 
we  all  realise  the  labour-saving  and  economic 
return  that  has  been  the  result  of  science  applied 
to  commercial  industries.  There  must  be  a 
definite  aim  to  simplify  housekeeping  and  domestic 
work ;  the  conditions  of  life  have  gone  that  made 
a  women  find  scope  for  all  her  energy  in  adminis- 
tering the  affairs  of  her  house  or  in  employing 
others  to  that  end. 

To  the  uninitiated  the  various  culinary  processes 
seem  endless,  and  to  arrive  at  a  proper  accomplish- 
ment of  these  is  generally  considered  a  matter  of 
continuous  practice.  A  better  understanding  of 
the  matter  readily  shows  that  while  many  pro- 
cesses can  only  be  perfected  by  repetition,  there 
are  even  more  that  fall  under  science  rather  than 
art.  Take,  for  example,  the  principles  underlying 
the  cooking  of  meat  by  stewing.  This  is  surely  a 
process  where  manipulation  is  nil.  To  make  pastry 


DOMESTIC    ARTS  315 

or  bread  we  must  have  a  certain  practice  in  the 
manipulation  to  give  the  deftness  (on  which  final 
success  depends)  in  addition  to  any  understanding 
of  the  principles  involved ;  but  with  regard  to 
stewing  and  many  similar  processes  it  should  be 
possible  to  have  one  lesson  made  so  explicit  that 
the  actual  process  was  known  for  all  time — the 
Irish  stew  of  an  artisan's  home  or  the  dainty 
entree  of  the  "Ritz"  being  only  an  adaptation  of 
given  principles  to  different  foods. 

In  order  to  reduce  primary  methods  to  such 
business-like  proportions,  it  is  necessary  to  con- 
sider them  in  their  effect  on  different  foods,  having 
due  regard  to  texture  and  to  the  effect  of  a  moist 
or  a  dry  heat.  It  would  be  a  matter  of  interest 
to  know  how  the  established  methods  of  cooking 
meat  and  fish  all  really  conduce  to  one  end,  viz. 
to  soften  the  fibres  by  steam  formed  from  their 
own  juices.  The  rules  for  most  methods  of  cook- 
ing these  foods  lead  to  this  assumption,  though 
nominally  based  only  on  a  means  of  retaining 
these  juices  in  order  to  save  a  valuable  part  of  the 
food.  The  actual  part  played  by  the  liquid  in 
which  foods  are  cooked  is  possibly  very  small, 
but  not  to  be  ignored  ;  the  presence  of  salt  in  the 
water  in  which  beef  or  potatoes  is  cooked  makes 
an  appreciable  difference  in  the  flavour  and  pro- 
bably in  the  food  value.  The  relation  of  the  fat 
used  in  frying  to  the  food  fried  in  it  is  too  often 
quite  misunderstood,  and  a  dyspeptic  patient  con- 
sequently is  ordered  "  no  fried  food." 

To     "  fry    in    butter "    sounds    well,   but    it    is 


316     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

practically  impossible  ;  to  saute  in  butter  at  a 
temperature  allowing  some  of  the  butter  to  enter 
the  food,  is  quite  a  valuable  method  of  cooking  ; 
but  to  raise  the  temperature  to  a  point  at  which 
frying  can  be  done  is  to  char  the  butter.  To  fry 
properly,  the  food  should  be  immersed  in  fat  so 
hot  that  the  outside  of  meat  is  immediately  "  set." 
Then  allow  the  heating  of  the  juices  inside  the 
meat  to  perform  the  necessary  cooking.  The  im- 
mersion of  the  cold  food  soon  lowers  the  tempera- 
ture of  the  fat  and  makes  continued  immersion 
possible.  The  best  kind  of  fat  for  this  purpose 
and  the  relative  temperature  at  which  different 
fats  may  be  used  needs  more  investigation.  At 
present  for  ordinary  kitchen  use  we  have  no  more 
reliable  test  of  temperature  than  to  venture  a  bit 
of  bread  and  judge  by  result.  One  thing  we  may 
accept — frying  is  not  a  greasy  or  rich  method  of 
cooking.  The  fat  used  is  merely  a  means  of  ex- 
cluding atmosphere  and  cooking  food  at  a  high 
temperature  ;  it  bears  no  more  relation  to  the 
food  itself  than  does  the  atmosphere  of  the  oven 
in  baking. 

This  question  of  temperatures  and  their  relation 
to  the  kind  of  food,  as  also  to  the  various  cookery 
processes,  needs  careful  handling  ;  we  want  not 
alone  a  definite  dogma  established  on  a  scientific 
basis,  but  we  want  the  means  to  apply  it  brought 
within  easy  reach — reach  of  a  limited  purse  and  a 
limited  intellectual  capacity,  for  we  are  not  all 
scholars.  There  is  no  reason  why  a  thermometer 
should  not  become  part  of  our  kitchen  equip- 


DOMESTIC    ARTS  317 

ment  just  as  readily  as  that  old  sand-glass  which 
regulated  the  boiling  of  an  egg,  but,  before  it 
is  the  case,  many  other  matters  must  fall  into 
line.  It  is  probable  that  a  careful  investigation 
of  the  best  means  of  frying,  boiling,  stewing,  &c. 
would  effect  a  considerable  revolution  in  our 
household  pots  and  pans.  Is  it  impossible  to 
produce  a  pan  in  which  a  given  quantity  of  fat  or 
oil  should  be  easily  brought  to,  say,  400°  Fahr., 
and  yet  be  unable  to  exceed  that  temperature  ? 
It  would  so  safeguard  expense  from  burning  that 
the  most  delightful  frying  medium,  olive  oil,  would 
be  readily  used  by  many  people. 

The  matter  of  watching,  and  waiting,  and  judging 
the  exact  minute  for  certain  operations  takes  far 
more  time  than  is  generally  supposed,  and  the 
gloom  surrounding  the  average  kitchen  range 
increases  the  difficulty.  The  cook  who  under- 
stands the  use  of  double  pans  for  oven  and  range 
has  done  something  to  save  both  time  and  anxiety, 
but  it  is  evident  that  much  more  might  be  done  to 
render  many  cookery  processes  almost  automatic. 
The  science  that  controls  the  production  of  such 
commercial  products  as  biscuits,  tinned  foods, 
pickles,  and  jam,  and  turns  them  out  to  a  uniform 
standard,  is  at  present  remote  from  the  household 
kitchen.  Such  scientific  knowledge  has  been  pro- 
duced at  a  commercial  value  for  commercial 
enterprise.  We  need  our  problems  brought  into 
/  universities  and  colleges  ;  into  the  channels  where 
research  is  made  public  ;  into  the  laboratories  of 
schools,  where,  if  no  wonderful  result  may  be  pro- 


3i8      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

claimed,  we  have  at  least  established  a  scientific 
method  of  approaching  the  work  of  kitchen, 
laundry,  and  storeroom.  The  ordinary  teaching  of 
the  domestic  subjects  too  often  tends  to  magnify 
the  difficulties  in  order  to  show  how  they  may  be 
overcome.  The  simplification  of  methods  by 
classification  would  do  much,  and  the  evolution  of 
possible  devices  for  saving  labour  would  do  still 
more,  to  establish  a  favourable  view  of  house- 
keeping. What  is  worth  doing  is  worth  doing 
well  ;  but  it  is  "  doing "  unnecessarily  that  spells 
drudgery. 

Our  attitude  in  considering  household  problems 
turns  almost  involuntarily  to  cooking,  but  the  need 
for  an  intellectual  grasp  of  matters  domestic  is 
equally  potent  in  methods  of  cleaning.  If  the 
word  "  hygiene,"  which  we  use  so  glibly,  were 
really  understood  and  appreciated,  the  modern 
house-builder  and  furnisher  would  quickly  be  sent 
to  swell  the  ranks  of  the  unemployed,  and  we 
should  demand  construction  and  fittings  which 
would  minimise  the  problems  of  dust  and  tarnish, 
provide  suitable  storage  for  food,  and  allow  clean- 
ing to  be  simple,  straightforward,  and  efficient. 
The  advent  of  the  vacuum  cleaner  is  less  valuable 
in  itself  than  in  the  establishment  of  a  new  principle 
for  dealing  with  dust,  and  one  that  may  eventually 
revolutionise  our  house-cleaning.  We  need  a 
simple  appliance  of  equal  scientific  value  to 
reduce  some  at  least  of  the  labour  entailed  in 
"washing-up."  Pots  and  pans,  plates  and  dishes 
may  be  economised  in  number  by  a  careful 


DOMESTIC    ARTS  319 

worker,  but  cleaned  they  must  be,  and  the  average 
"  sink "  of  scullery  or  pantry  is  little  removed 
from  the  pristine  incompleteness  of  its  first  appear- 
ance. There  is,  in  the  cloisters  of  Gloucester 
Cathedral,  a  sink,  evidently  used  by  the  monks  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  which  is  identical  with  those 
found  in  sculleries  of  to-day,  and  yet  chemistry 
and  physics  have  revolutionised  our  industries  and 
produced  all  sorts  of  scientific  methods  for  cleaning, 
lighting,  and  heating  on  a  large  scale.  Perhaps 
when  the  same  woman  who  takes  a  D.Sc.  bestows 
some  of  her  energy  on  the  washing  of  dishes  we 
shall  get  to  something  less  primitive  than  washing 
each  individual  greasy  plate  with  a  mop  or  cloth. 
The  only  scientific  treatment  of  "  washing-up " 
used  at  present  seems  open  to  criticism,  and  is 
only  suited  to  large  establishments,  but  it  should 
be  possible  to  construct  every  sink  with  some  sort 
of  douche  and  general  fittings  suited  to  this  work. 
The  question  of  the  position  of  modern  woman 
towards  laundry-work  seems  to  have  resolved  itself 
into  one  of  income.  If  she  can  pay  for  the  services 
of  a  steam  laundry  she  does  so.  In  the  United 
Kingdom  it  is  estimated  that  there  are  30,000 
public  laundries,  but  we  have  yet  to  find  one  that 
can  produce  a  list  of  charges  within  reasonable 
limits  of  a  small  income.  In  the  homes  that  are 
run  on  incomes  of  ^100  to  ^400  a-year,  and 
where  the  laundry-work  is  done  at  the  public 
laundry,  the  amount  of  "  washing  "  must  be  small, 
or  some  other  side  of  the  expenditure  must  be 
seriously  curtailed.  Laundrying  performed  intelli- 


320     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

gently  and  under  suitable  conditions  is  neither 
difficult  nor  unpleasant.  To  stand  over  a  wash- 
tub  rubbing  each  article  by  hand  ;  to  strain  every 
muscle  emptying  that  tub ;  to  dry  garments  on  a 
rail  across  a  kitchen  and  iron  them  near  a  blazing 
fire  is  not  intelligent,  and  can  only  be  followed  by 
women  driven  by  custom  to  wash  clothes  at  all. 
Perhaps  in  no  section  of  household  work  are 
scientific  methods  within  reach  as  in  the  laundry  ; 
the  existence  of  the  public  laundry  and  the  rivalry 
of  different  firms  has  produced  an  open  market 
for  appliances  of  all  kinds,  and  the  exhibition  of 
laundry  utensils,  machines,  &c.,  has  become  an 
annual  event.  Though  many  of  the  inventions  are 
destined  for  the  ll  power  "  and  general  scope  of  the 
public  laundry,  there  are  always  a  number  of  home 
appliances  to  be  seen ;  many  more  would  be  adapted 
if  there  were  more  demand.  Any  real  scope  for 
these  must  rest  in  the  first  place  with  architect 
and  house-builder.  In  the  North  of  England  it  is 
usual  to  build  a  small  "  wash-house "  to  nearly 
every  house,  but  the  general  construction  of  these 
wash-houses  is  such  as  to  discourage  any  desire 
to  use  them.  Only  cold  water  is  provided  ;  the 
boiler  is  arranged  as  a  detached  unit ;  the  pos- 
sibility of  a  drying  cupboard  in  connection  with 
kitchen  stove  or  hot-water  cylinder  is  never  con- 
sidered, and  the  economical  heating  of  irons  is 
generally  overlooked.  The  use  of  irons  heated  by 
gas,  charcoal,  and  methylated  spirit  would  be  more 
general  if  these  were  more  efficiently  constructed 
and  less  expensive.  The  provision  of  electricity 


DOMESTIC    ARTS  321 

at  a  cost  within  the  reach  of  ordinary  folk  will 
simplify  many  things  in  laundry-work  as  in  cook- 
ing and  cleaning.  Instruction  is,  to  some  extent, 
already  available  as  to  soaps,  detergent  solutions 
and  bleaching  agents.  We  need  more  apprecia- 
tion of  the  part  that  may  be  played  by  the  pro- 
cess of  "  steeping  "  and  the  minimum  of  handling 
with  which  clothes  may  be  efficiently  washed  and 
finished.  The  profit  and  loss  in  the  matter  cannot 
be  estimated  only  in  labour,  time,  soap,  and  firing  ; 
the  wear  and  tear  of  fabric  in  public  laundries  com- 
pared with  home  handling  and  the  risk  of  infection 
involved  must  both  be  taken  into  account.  If  we 
make  laundrying  easy  we  do  much  to  make  a 
frequent  change  of  garment  possible  to  a  section 
of  the  community  inclined  to  economise  in  this 
direction,  and  we  should  probably  make  fashionable 
those  household  materials  that  may  be  consigned 
to  a  wash-tub,  instead  of  paying  a  reluctant  visit 
to  the  dry-cleaner — chintz,  cretonne,  and  Bolton 
sheeting  instead  of  serge,  tapestry,  and  plush.  We 
owe  one  debt  of  gratitude  to  the  public  laundry 
— it  has  raised  a  section  of  household  work  to 
the  level  of  a  skilled  industry,  though  as  yet  there 
seems  no  system  of  apprenticeship  that  turns  out 
the  " complete"  laundress. 

For  the  limits  of  a  short  paper  these  matters 
have  perhaps  been  treated  somewhat  discursively, 
but  the  object  has  been  attained  if,  by  the  few  illus- 
trations selected,  some  attention  has  been  drawn 
to  the  field  of  inquiry  which  lies  open,  and  the 
urgent  need  for  a  definite  application  of  scientific 

x 


322      HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

minds  to  problems  which,  amid  all  the  advances 
of  this  progressive  age,  seem  to  lag  behind.  The 
inclusion  of  housecraft  as  part  of  the  curriculum 
of  elementary  and  secondary  schools  may  do  much 
to  rouse  interest  and  overcome  some  difficulties 
of  cooking,  &c.,  but  to  any  one  familiar  with  these 
classes  it  is  evident  that  their  scope  is  very  limited, 
if  only  for  the  reason  that  the  teaching  so  often 
treats  the  work  of  housekeeping  as  an  imitative 
art,  based,  for  want  of  reliable  scientific  data,  on 
rules  and  recipes  that  are  practically  organised 
tradition  no  more.  In  secondary  schools,  the 
introduction  of  laboratory  work  has  opened  up 
fresh  possibilities  of  a  more  reasonable  treatment 
of  housecraft,  for  it  is  certain  that,  when  teachers 
are  properly  equipped  for  their  work,  biology, 
physics,  and  chemistry  (organic  and  inorganic)  can 
be  successfully  taught  along  lines  that  bring  within 
the  scope  of  school  science  such  matters  as  food 
and  feeding,  cooking  and  washing,  fuels,  heating, 
ventilation,  and  hygiene. 

To  teach  chemistry  and  physics  in  the  usual 
academic  manner  and  then  tack  on  a  course  of 
cookery  and  laundry-work  at  the  end  of  school 
life  cannot  possibly  be  of  the  same  value  as  the 
co-ordinated  courses  ;  we  want  scientific  method 
even  more  than  "  science"  for  these  schools  girls, 
who  shall  so  soon  be  the  housekeepers  and 
home-makers.  We  may  say  with  Stevenson,  "  A 
dogma  learned  is  only  a  new  error — the  old  was 
perhaps  as  good  ;  but  a  spirit  communicated  is  a 
perpetual  possession."  For  those  girls  who  pass 


DOMESTIC    ARTS  323 

on  to  a  university  or  technical  school  we  want 
an  intelligence  alert  to  all  that  may  lie  in  further 
investigation  of  those  problems  suggested  at 
school. 

A  certain  jealousy  may  be  pardoned  that  the 
possible  evolution  of  housekeeping  may  be  the 
work  of  women  ;  the  leaders  of  the  "  woman's 
movement"  have  so  often  spoiled  their  work  by 
following  the  lines  of  men's  activities  and  aiming 
at  a  goal  essentially  masculine.  The  things  that 
go  to  housekeeping  seem  so  intimately  connected 
with  motherhood  and  mothering  that  it  must  be 
hoped  our  most  able  women  will  bring  their  in- 
telligence, their  education,  and  their  sense  of 
national  responsibility  to  the  task  of  housekeeping — 
to  the  simplification  of  its  problems,  the  reduction 
of  the  labour  involved,  and  the  organisation  of  the 
paid  service.  There  is  certainly  scope  for  master- 
minds. 

We  touched  on  the  organisation  of  the  nursing 
service.  If  it  is  possible  to  duly  care  for  the  sick 
and  at  the  same  time  train  an  efficient  nurse,  it  is 
surely  possible  to  provide  proper  service  in  the 
huge  caravanseries  of  our  modern  life,  and  at  the 
same  time  provide  a  suitable  apprenticeship  for 
the  domestic  worker.  Good  instruction  at  school, 
followed  by  one  or  two  years  of  definite  training 
in  a  hostel  or  boarding-house,  should  produce  a 
class  of  skilled  women  workers  who  can  be 
organised  and  employed  on  the  same  lines  as 
those  of  the  nursing  service. 

In   many   branches  of   labour  the  women   are 


324     HOUSEHOLD    ADMINISTRATION 

ousting  the  men  ;  unless  we  can  make  good  the 
present  breach  in  our  home  bulwark  and  train  our 
army  of  defence,  we  may  find  men  ousting  women 
in  their  own  particular  sphere. 

America  and  Canada,  realising  that  their  coveted 
nationality  must  be  founded  on  homes,  have 
brought  into  their  universities  the  "  science  of 
home  affairs."  England,  in  spite  of  the  warning 
note  sounded  by  inquiries  into  physical  deteriora- 
tion, infant  mortality,  and  kindred  evils,  has  been 
content  with  a  tradition  of  good  homes,  and  has 
so  far  done  little  more  than  provide  a  smattering 
of  cookery  lessons  for  elementary  school  girls. 

There  is,  however,  a  promise  of  better  things. 
One  university  college  has  made  a  venture  into 
home  science,  and  other  universities  would  soon 
be  at  work  if  the  necessary  money  could  be 
secured.  Oh,  for  some  silver-tongued  evangelist 
to  cry  in  the  ears  of  our  philanthropic  millionaires 
all  that  might  be  done  for  this  country  by  bringing 
its  best  brains  to  consider  the  material  things  that 
go  to  the  making  of  a  good  home  ! 


THE    END 


Printed  by  BALLANTYNE,  HANSON  6-*  Co. 
Edinburgh  6*  London  , 


»*•-«-— 


a  W 

OVERDUE. 


ID    O/7OO 


UNIVERSITY  OF 


CALIFORNIA  LIBRARV 


